, The Portuguese Ministry of National Defense signed this week a €28 Million contract with the Spanish company INDRA Sistemas SA for the acquisition of a long-range tri-dimensional LANZA 3D radar, which is also used by the Spanish Air Force.
The delivery to the Portuguese Air Force is scheduled for 2008, and it will allow the coverage of the civil and military air space of the Madeira island, through the POACCS Portuguese Air Command and Control System (SICCAP Sistema de Comando e Controlo Aéreo de Portugal in Portuguese), which is already implanted in Portugal’s mainland territory. This equipment will be sited at the Pico do Areeiro (Areeiro Peak), and will depend on the respective support infrastructure approved by the year 2003 Military Programme Bill called LPM (Lei de Programação Militar).
The Chief of Staff of the FAP (Força Aérea Portuguesa), General Taveira Martins, who attended the signature ceremony, said that the equipment will be used to “assure the timely warning against threats of any origin and help in policing the zone and in assuring the control and surveillance of fishing and illicit activities”. The conclusion of the POACCS will only be achieved with the installation of a radar with similar characteristics in the Azores archipelago, a program that, according to Ministry of Defense sources, will be concluded by 2011.
INDRA Sistemas SA LANZA 3D is a multi-functional long range radar system for different scenarios and threats that carries out scanning by means of brushes in the NATO D band.
