print preview

FLORAKO

The FLORAKO airspace surveillance and operational control system

The FLORAKO airspace surveillance and operational
Group
Support Equipment
Class
Technical systems
Place of operation
Surface-to-Air

Florako provides the Air Force with a powerful and sophisticated airspace surveillance and operational control system. The basic Florako system procured under the 1998 Armaments Programme consists of two new primary and secondary radars for wide-area air surveillance coverage, integration of the existing military sensors (e.g. the “Taflir” tactical aviation radar), interfaces to the civilian sensors and the civil aviation safety system, the construction of a new radar-based air situation system and the equipment for the Air Force’s operations centres. This basic system has been operational since the beginning of February 2004. The second procurement stage, initiated by the 1999 Armaments Programme, upgraded the basic system by the addition of two further primary and secondary radars. The primary radars are multifunctional radars for all-round surveillance and for the selective tracking of targets allocated to them. The 2004 Armaments Programme will fully integrate the datalink (Link 16) into Florako. This will then allow technical and tactical data to be directly interchanged via digital communications between the Florako operations centres and the F/A-18 combat aircraft controlled by FLORAKO. In addition to outstanding immunity to interference and eavesdropping, compared with current aviation communication systems, the system will also allow selectively addressed communication between the combat aircraft and the command platform. This represents a step change in command and control communications.