Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Powerful balloon radar to help watch over Singapore

SINGAPORE — From early next year, Singapore will have a new sentinel in the sky: A balloon equipped with a radar more than three times as powerful as current ground-based systems and able to work around the clock.

SINGAPORE — From early next year, Singapore will have a new sentinel in the sky: A balloon equipped with a radar more than three times as powerful as current ground-based systems and able to work around the clock.

Called an aerostat, the unmanned 55m-long helium balloon floating about 610m high can detect threats as far as 200km away and is meant to overcome constraints faced by Singapore’s ground-based radar system, which can be obstructed by the country’s growing skyline.

Speaking at the Ministry of Defence’s PRIDE Day award presentation ceremony yesterday, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen noted Singapore’s lack of high vantage points such as mountains, as well as the emergence of buildings that are 40 storeys or taller.

“We need an effective early-warning system from threats that can come by air or sea,” said Dr Ng. “You have incidents like Sept 11 where there were attacks on the twin towers in Manhattan, you have the Mumbai attacks (in 2008) where terrorists came from the sea and these attacks are a reality ... the recent MH370 incident showed us ... that international rules for civilian air traffic do not require planes to reveal their positions all the time.”

While Singapore has also been using radar borne by Gulfstream G550 planes, these are intensive in terms of cost, manpower and resources, said Dr Ng. In comparison, the aerostat will cost S$29 million less to operate each year, yet has the capabilities to serve as Singapore’s “protector in the sky”, he said.

There will be no reduction in the number of Gulfstream G550 flights — which serve other functions — when the aerostat comes into operation to complement Singapore’s suite of radar systems.

The aerostat’s 200km range — as far as Malacca in Malaysia and Pulau Lingga off the eastern coast of Sumatra — will also dwarf the range of Singapore’s current low-level radar, the Giraffe Agile Multiple Beam Radar, which reaches up to only 60km.

Built by American firm TCOM, aerostats have been deployed around the world since the 1980s, including in war zones in Afghanistan. The inert nature of helium allows the balloon to stay afloat even when hit by projectiles. The Kevlar tether linking the balloon to the mooring station is able to withstand wind speeds of up to 70 knots — the wind speed of a small hurricane — as well as lightning strikes.

TODAY understands that the aerostat’s location has not been decided on, but it will be based in one of the Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) camps and away from airspace with heavy traffic. A restricted airspace the size of a football field will surround the balloon during its deployment.

Addressing public-safety concerns over the balloon, the SAF said the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) had put in place safety procedures in line with regulations set by the United States Federal Aviation Authority.

The RSAF is also working with the Civil Aviation Authority to plan safe operations in Singapore’s congested airspace, including issuing notices to inform aviators of the balloon’s presence, for instance.

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.