Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE: NOC) Sperry Marine business unit has introduced an innovative new multi-mode navigation radar system for commercial ships, designed to enhance the radar operator’s situational awareness, particularly in inclement weather, without having to constantly switch between different radar screens.

The new Sperry Marine dual BridgeMaster E radar system incorporates a unique design that permits radar video from two different transceivers to be mixed and displayed simultaneously, presenting a seamless single integrated picture to the radar operator. The system even allows the radar antennas to be located several hundred meters apart, and to have totally asynchronous rotation speeds and operate in different frequency bands. The display will also allow the picture to be switched between X-band and S-band without loss of important video trail history. The control of both transceivers can be performed from a single display.

“With the dual BridgeMaster E radar system, the operator is able to combine the best qualities of X-band and S-band performance on a single display,” said John Robinson, strategic business unit director for marine radar at Sperry Marine. “This means the watchkeeper does not need to constantly move back and forth from the X-band to the S-band radar display to get the complete picture. This is especially useful during periods of rain, fog and choppy seas, which can mask radar targets in clutter on the radar screen.”

“By combining inputs from two separate radar antennas, the dual BridgeMaster E system also eliminates blind arcs caused by blockages from the ship’s or platform’s superstructure, and provides 360-degree visibility of the surrounding area,” Robinson added. “Blind arcs can become a thing of the past, and radar targets can be tracked in sectors where it was not possible before.”

Like all BridgeMaster E systems, the new dual channel navigation radar system offers the world’s most sophisticated automatic clutter suppression technology and a comprehensive array of capabilities for both shipboard and static platform applications.

Introduced to the marine industry in 1998, the Sperry Marine BridgeMaster E family of products established a new benchmark for marine radar technology. BridgeMaster E radars are type-approved by all the principal national authorities and classification societies, and over 6,500 systems are in service on commercial ships and naval vessels worldwide.

Sperry Marine’s global technical service network provides shipboard service for BridgeMaster E radars in virtually any port in the world, supported by the ServiceNet web-based service portal for customer tracking of repairs and maintenance.

Sperry Marine, with worldwide headquarters in Charlottesville, Va., and a major center of excellence for marine radar engineering in New Malden, Surrey, United Kingdom, is part of Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems sector. The business unit provides smart navigation and ship control solutions for the international marine industry with customer service and support through offices in 16 countries, sales representatives in 47 countries, and authorized service depots in more than 250 locations worldwide.

Headquartered in Baltimore, Md., Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems is a world leader in the design, development and manufacture of defense and commercial electronic systems including airborne radar, navigation systems, electronic countermeasures, precision weapons, airspace management systems, communications systems, space systems, marine and naval systems, government systems and logistics services.