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One of the most powerful and versatile air-defense radars in the world (the Australian JORN or Jindalee Operational Radar Network) has completed another round of upgrades and became fully operational earlier this year. Work now continues on still more upgrades, which will begin in a few years. These will concentrate on making the system hardware, especially the computers, easier to upgrade. New computer hardware is constantly appearing and the ability to quickly take advantage of that is essential to keeping JORN effective and affordable. Meanwhile more details of exactly what JORN can, and cannot do, are becoming available.
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JORN is a network of two large radars in northern Australia and a development radar in central Australia. Data from all three is combined and processed at another air force base in southern Australia. Details of JORN capabilities have always been secret, but more has been revealed this year as the upgrade was completed and the system has apparently performed well. Max range of JORN is about 3,000 kilometers, and minimum range is a thousand kilometers. The upgrades covered a lot of hardware and software issues but it was no secret that the main improvement was to increase the speed with which data was processed and quickly provide a more accurate picture of what is out there. The key to the system has always been software that enabled a weak return signal to be accurately identified. Thus, even stealth aircraft can be spotted by JRON.
Read the full story at StrategyPage