General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has announced that its Lynx Block 30 Synthetic Aperture Radar/Ground Moving Target Indicator (SAR/GMTI) radar has surpassed 1,000 collective mission hours on Sky Warrior Block 1 aircraft in support of U.S. Army combat operations in Iraq.

Lynx radars have been deployed on four Sky Warrior UAS since early December 2009 as part of the Army's Quick Reaction Capability-1 (QRC-1) deployment for the Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) UAS Program.

"The achievement of this milestone, combined with its operationally demonstrated performance and reliability, is a testament to the maturity of the Lynx Block 30 production radars," said Linden Blue, president, Reconnaissance Systems Group, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

"The Block 30 radar is making a difference to the troops on the ground, providing timely situational awareness and threat-warning in support of tactical operations."

In addition to supporting QRC-1 operations with the Lynx radar, GA-ASI is providing full Contractor Logistics Support (CLS), including radar operation, image analysis, and maintenance support.

GA-ASI mission crews have planned over 80 specific target set collections in support of tasked intelligence requirements, resulting in the collection and analysis of over 11,000 SAR images. A second group of four Lynx Block 30 radars is scheduled to begin Limited User Testing with the Army later this month in support of this summer's planned QRC-2 deployment.

The Lynx Block 30 radar is currently the only SAR/GMTI payload to have completed ER/MP integration testing and deployment. The radar also features very fast Coherent Change Detection (CCD) algorithms and is continually being improved with enhanced performance and capabilities.

Lynx Block 30 provides the all-weather detection capability of time-sensitive targets with precise geo-location and offers a long-range, wide-area surveillance capability that can provide high-resolution SAR imagery at slant ranges well beyond effective Electro-Optical/ Infrared (EO/IR) range.

Lynx also has a broad area GMTI scanning mode for detecting moving vehicles in front and to either side of the aircraft platform. GMTI targets can cue the EO/IR payload in its narrow field-of-view setting by using the CLAW payload control software.