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Technavio Announces Top Three Trends for the Global X-band Radar Market Through 2020
[May 04, 2016]

Technavio Announces Top Three Trends for the Global X-band Radar Market Through 2020


Technavio's latest global X-band radar market report highlights three key emerging trends predicted to impact market growth through 2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as something that has potential for significant impact on the market and contributes to its growth or decline.

"Rise in energy consumption and seaborne trade are expected to significantly contribute to the growth of the X-band radar market during the forecast period. It is estimated that by 2030 seaborne trade will surpass 24 billion tons in volumes, with China predicted to account for almost a quarter of the global commercial fleet during this period," said Abhay Singh, one of Technavio's lead analysts for defense research.

"Energy consumption has tripled over the past five decades due to economic growth in developing countries. The global annual oil consumption in 2014 was recorded to be 92 MMb/d and it is expected to increase to 118 MMb/d by 2030. This rise in energy consumption will significantly contribute towards the growth of in of merchant vessels. As these ships use X-band radars to avoid collision with other ships, the market will witness a surge in its demand over the next four years" added Abhay.

Technavio's market research study identifies the following three emerging trends expected to propel the growth of the X-band radar market:

  • Development of multi-function radar
  • Increased use of transportable X-band radars
  • Increased adoption of new technology

Development of multi-function radar

Multi-function radar (MFR) is a three-face X-band active phased-array radar incorporated with volume search radar to form a dual-band radar suite. It is designed and developed to detect threats posed by low observable anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCM) and to support fire control requirements for standard missiles (SM-2/SM-3) and evolved sea sparrow missiles (ESSM).

The system also delivers other functions such as horizon search/track-while-scan (HS/TWS), threat target illumination, and missile uplink/downlink to support ship self-defense. MFR also supports search and track functions including sector/volume research, counter-battery, cued acquisition, periscope detection and discrimination, surface search/navigation, and naval surface fire support.

The MFR performs the functions delivered by more than five radars and reduces ownership cost and operating requirements for maintenance. AN/SPY-3 is a multi-function radar developed by Raytheon (News - Alert) for littoral nd blue-water operations. In 2015, the US Navy awarded a USD 12 million contract to Raytheon to develop a radar suite including AN/SPY-4 volume search radar at S-band and AN/SPY-3 multifunction radar at X-band. The radar suite is expected to be introduced in the Ford (News - Alert)-class aircraft carriers, Zumwalt-class destroyers, and LH (X) future ship class.



Increased use of transportable X-band radars

Growing threats of ballistic missiles have increased the use of transportable X-band radar to counter those threats. According to the US Intelligence, it is estimated that there are more than 6,300 ballistic missiles excluding those of the US, Russia, NATO, and China, and this number will likely reach 8,000 by 2020. As these nations are developing nuclear, chemical, and biological warheads, it becomes necessary for other countries to counter those threats while improving their weaponry systems.


One such system developed by Raytheon to detect or counter those threats is AN/TPY-2. It is also commonly known as forward-based X-band radar transportable (FBX-T) and is a phased-array X-band radar that tracks missiles in the boost phase. It is a land-based mobile radar system that offers the flexibility to transport by air, sea, or rail.

The system consists of the following components:

  • A terminal high-altitude area defense (THAAD) radar with improved software and hardware programs
  • An interface for communication with ballistic missile defense system (BMDS)
  • Associated power and cooling equipment

Using these components, FBX-T detects and assesses ballistic missile threats (during the initial phase of the flight) and provides enhanced situational awareness to the operator with the options of engaging with BMDS.

Increased adoption of new technology

Improvements in the phased-array radar have led to the development of digital beamforming technology. This technology had several errors in fixed-delay systems (inflexible) and variable delay systems (limited performance variations). Moreover, it could not track multiple targets simultaneously.

However, the introduction of digital beamforming technology eliminates the performance variations and can send multiple beams at the same time. The radars supporting this technology can monitor multiple directions simultaneously, which is a major advantage compared to conventional systems. These can also be placed on satellites to perform environmental monitoring and spy missions from the orbit. They are combined with antenna and digital technologies to secure the incoming information as well.

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About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

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