DeepFinder

DeepFinder Long Range Early Warning radar

Surveillance and intelligence
Air defence
Defence

Early Warning against ballistic, hypersonic, stealth and space threats is becoming more relevant because of their speed or low observability. Early warning radars like the DeepFinder UHF family of radars provide this long range detection capability leaving more time to react.

FORCES

UHF radar for long range early warning

UHF radar band

The UHF radar band has the inherent capability to detect stealth targets. UHF technology allows the use of high power transmitters to increase the range even more. In addition the UHF band is less vulnerable for jamming.
Fixed and mobile

The DeepFinder Tactical UHF version provides high mobility to maximize survivability. The Strategic UHF version provides a maximum detection range of up to 5,000 km.
Common UHF building blocks

The modularity of the UHF radar architecture ensures maximum commonality between the different family members of DeepFinder. This commonality ensure future growth, simplified support and economy of scales.

Detect small, stealth targets at long range with minimum vulnerability

Thales’ DeepFinder UHF radars deliver long-range early warning for Integrated Air & Missile Defence, detecting ballistic, hypersonic, stealth, and space threats. Their UHF band ensures resilience against jamming while cueing air defense systems for engagement.

Traditional Ballistic Missile Defence assumed predictable ballistic arcs, but modern missiles use flatter, maneuverable trajectories and launch from anywhere (land/air/sea), overwhelming legacy systems. The DeepFinder family is the next-generation early warning architecture: a suite of UHF radars designed to provide persistent ballistic missile detection and tracking, from deployable theatre defence to strategic surveillance and space domain awareness.

The UHF radar family approach

The Strategic version of the DeepFinder family is a fixed installation. The antenna array is scalable in number of transmit and receive elements as well as the number of antenna faces. Three faces can cover 360 degrees and can go up to a detection range of 5000 km.

The tactical DeepFinder is a disruptive concept that combines ultra-long-range surveillance and tracking, up to several thousand kilometers, with high tactical mobility and without compromise. It provides high flexibility in operational use cases, from very long range surveillance to projectable early warning and space situational awareness. This unprecedented capability is achieved by aggregating multiple distinct radar modules and operating them as a single antenna. With their early warning and tracking capabilities, DeepFinder tactical radars significantly enhance air and missile defense missions.

The DeepFinder Space UHF Radar (a.k.a AURORE in France), provides continuous monitoring and tracking of multiple space objects simultaneously. As space operations are challenged by a substantial increase in threats, from military to space debris, the ability to identify and track multiple small objects in space in real-time makes all the difference when it comes to space sovereignty and protecting the skies.

Software-defined, the radar operates in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band, that will provide continuous surveillance and simultaneous multi-tracking of numerous space objects with a fast low Earth orbit responsiveness time, and the generation of a high-resolution picture of the space environment in real-time.

Learn more about AURORE