Sampson Radar Ready for Installation on Type 45 Destroyer

Released on Monday, October 23, 2006

The first SAMPSON Multi Function Radar system, designed to give new UK Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyers a world-beating air defence capability, has been dispatched from the BAE Systems facility at Cowes and completed installation at the Eskmeals sea-level test site in Cumbria and has now commenced the setting to work phase.

The SAMPSON system is the first of a new generation of Multi-Function Radar that provides surveillance, target tracking and missile information for the MBDA Principal Anti-Air Missile System that will be the main armament of the UK Royal Navy Type 45 Destroyers currently in production.

Following successful Factory Acceptance Testing at the end of July, the second SAMPSON system has been initially installed on the Longbow Sea Trials Platform in Portsmouth Dockyard.

BAE Systems has recently achieved two major milestones in the SAMPSON program. Achievement of these two milestones continues to demonstrate confidence in the readiness of the radar to progress to the next level of the integration program.

SAMPSON contributes to the area defence around the Type 45 and the accompanying fleet detecting all types of targets out to a distance of 400km and providing up-link messages to the Aster missiles to neutralize this threat.

The radar is capable of tracking hundreds of targets at any one time and will provide a huge step improvement to the current capability on Royal Navy ships.

The contract from the UK Ministry of Defence, through the tri-national PAAMS Program Office, based in Paris, is to provide three prototype Radars to qualify the PAAMS Missile System and the Type 45 Destroyer Combat System and provide the initial production system for the first of class ship HMS Daring. Five further production radars are also on order.