• Nuriplan to leverage its expertise across government, commercial and military markets to support the sale of Blighter’s advanced radar technology into this region
• Plextek’s advanced Blighter electronic-scanning FMCW Doppler ground surveillance radars and track record in South Korea with border surveillance installation were factors in agreement

CAMBRIDGE, UK, February 24, 2012 – Plextek Ltd, the design house behind the market-leading Blighter® (www.blighter.com) electronic-scanning ground surveillance radar system, announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with South Korean firm Nuriplan Co. Ltd, for the supply of Blighter radars into the South Korean market.

The agreement provides Plextek with a supply channel for its radar systems into the diverse Korean market. Nuriplan, a KOSDAQ listed company, will leverage its expertise across government, commercial and military markets to support the sale of Blighter’s advanced technology into this region.

This will include local manufacturing of the radars, training and technical support for customers, and localisation of the radar software.

At the signing ceremony hosted by the British Embassy in Seoul, Sang Woo Lee, chairman of Nuriplan, said: “We are excited to be working in partnership with Plextek to introduce their maintenance-free Blighter radars into the South Korean domestic market.

We believe that Plextek’s ground surveillance radars – which have been proven to be highly effective in local border surveillance applications in mountainous terrain and in extreme weather conditions – have great sales potential in South Korea.”

Blighter radars are already operational in South Korea and for over a year have been providing failure-free border surveillance in what is considered one of the world’s most mountainous countries with environmental extremes of -30ºC in winter and a humid +40ºC in summer.

In this existing installation, the Blighter radar systems provide a persistent surveillance capability to search for illegal immigrants and allow border patrol agents to precisely intercept them. The Blighter radars keep working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, monitoring borders for any human, vehicle or low-flying aircraft incursions.

Plextek meet the Board and Blighter support team at Nuriplan Mark Radford, director of Blighter solutions at Plextek, said: “We have had great success in selling the Blighter radar to customers in ten countries – including this strategic border surveillance installation in South Korea, as well as to our own British Army, and to international airports and other government, defence and commercial organisations.

After pursuing the South Korean market for over seven years, we are delighted to form this strong partnership with Nuriplan for the long term supply of Blighter radars and associated technology into South Korea to enhance the country’s homeland security.”

Blighter is a family of advanced electronic-scanning FMCW Doppler ground surveillance radars. These radars can be integrated with cameras and other sensors to provide prime contractors and systems integrators with effective, long and medium range, wide-area, 24-hour, all-weather rapid detection of potential security threats over land or water.

Blighter radars provide an unmatched combination of high reliability, accuracy and performance with a low cost of ownership.

For more information about the Blighter range of advanced radars, please visit www.blighter.com, telephone +44 1223 491122 or email.

About Plextek and Blighter (www.blighter.com)

Blighter is a family of advanced ground surveillance radars developed by Plextek, a leading British design house and technology innovator. Blighter radars combine Plextek’s patented solid state electronic-scanning technology with advanced FMCW and Doppler processing to provide a robust and persistent surveillance capability.

Prime contractors and systems integrators can combine the radars with long-range cameras, thermal imagers and other sensors to provide wide-area, 24-hour, all-weather rapid detection and identification of potential security threats over land or water.

Blighter radars are used worldwide in commercial, government and defence markets in area and asset protection for national border security, homeland security, critical infrastructure protection, coastal surveillance, and in defence applications.

First developed in 2003, the Blighter radars provide an unmatched combination of high reliability, accuracy and performance with a low cost of ownership and are designed for use in extreme weather conditions and in the most difficult terrain. Plextek is based at Great Chesterford on the outskirts of Cambridge, England. Blighter products are designed and manufactured in the United Kingdom.

Media contacts:

Martin Brooke (for Blighter)
Martin Brooke Associates
Tel: +44 1223 882174
Email: Martin Brooke

• Scanning 100km² of land, in just 1.5 seconds

Blighter B303 Ground Surveillance Radar on WASP Trailer Plextek, the leading Cambridge design house and technology innovator, has released its new Blighter B303 radar system. Based on the field proven Blighter B202 radars, the B303 offers 180° of electronic scanning (e-scan) in a compact 20 kg pole or mast mounting unit with a detection range out to 8 km. The B303 can scan 100 km² of land, in just 1.5 seconds, making it ideal for mobile and fixed area, border and perimeter surveillance applications. Two Blighter B303 units can also be mounted back-to-back to provide a complete dual-scanning 360° solution for site perimeter protection applications.

The Blighter B303 radar system is currently being used by Meridian Defence and Security Ltd on their G-WASP (Ground Wide Area Security Platform) to create a comprehensive trailer mounted multi-sensor surveillance system. The G-WASP system includes the Blighter B303 radar for rapid intruder detection and a long-range Electro-Optic system for target identification purposes. A comprehensive Command and Control system integrates the sensors into an intuitive border surveillance platform. The G-WASP platforms can be interconnected over secure wireless radio links to provide a continuous border surveillance capability.

All Blighter radars use electronic-scanning technology to achieve exceptionally slow speed target detection even in cluttered environments, whilst scanning at high speeds. The Blighter B303 radar uses Plextek’s patented low-cost printed antenna technology to electronically scan a full 180°, equivalent to 100 km² of land, in just 1.5 seconds. Blighter’s electronic scanning system forms precise beams both on transmit and receive, allowing it to ignore and reject targets and clutter that trouble older staring array radars. The B303 radar maintains the exceptionally wide elevation beam width of 20° offered by the B202 product. This feature allows the radar to operate in regions with complex hilly terrain and detect hill-top and valley hugging targets with a single scan. The B303 radar offers a range of software selectable radar modes to optimise the radar for different applications and terrain.

Mark Radford, Director of Security Products at Plextek commented: “The development of the Blighter B303 radar is testament to the success of our existing Blighter B202 Mk 2 portable radar system and Blighter B400 series long-range radars. It extends the capability and cost effectiveness of the Blighter electronic-scanning radar family for short-to-medium range ground surveillance applications, making the Blighter B303 radar the most effective product in its class and price range.”

Mark Hussey of Meridian commented: “The new Blighter B303 radar has been the perfect match to our lightweight trailer mounted surveillance system. The B303 radar is compact and robust making it ideal to use as the prime sensor on our WASP system. We have already received considerable attention from defence users in Europe and the USA and anticipate significant orders in the coming months.”

The Blighter B303 radar will be on display at the Plextek stand S3-495 at DSEI, 13th to 16th Sept. 2011 and also on the Team G-WASP stand (S6-190).

• Educating students on the latest in battlefield surveillance and security technology

Plextek Works with MoDPlextek has supported the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Intermediate Command & Staff Course (Land) (ICSC(L)) on its annual NIGHT OWL exercise at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC). The event, which featured Plextek’s Blighter radar technology, took place over two nights from the 9-10 of November and guided students through hands on experience of the latest in surveillance and security technology.

Plextek has supported the event for three years now and has worked closely with ICSC(L) and Defence Academy staff to ensure students experience the latest in battlefield surveillance technology.

Plextek’s Jonathon Pittock, Blighter Field Applications Engineer, attended the event and said, “We are proud to continue our support in educating JSCSC students on the latest in battlefield technology. Modern radar systems now offer integration with a wide range of other sensors and can be remotely managed and the best way to experience this is through the hands-on experience that the NIGHT OWL exercise brings.”

“We are very grateful for Plextek’s continued support on this exercise,” said Major Gareth Davies, the ICSC(L) Directing Staff responsible for Ex NIGHT OWL. “It’s essential for students to see the very best in equipment capability and develop a good understanding of its capabilities and potential – working with Plextek makes this possible.”

Plextek’s Blighter radar systems continue to prove themselves a valuable asset within Defence, Force Protection and Homeland Security environments. Blighter is now used in the UK, France, Poland and the Czech Republic in Europe; the Middle East including Saudi Arabia; Asia Pacific including South Korea and Australia as well as North America. Earlier this year Plextek launched Blighter MultiWatch, a persistent wide-area surveillance system that allows up to six radars to be networked together to monitor up to 300 sq km of land.

Plextek, the Cambridge-based electronics and communications design consultancy today launched Blighter MultiWatch a persistent wide-area surveillance system using its successful patented Blighter radar that allows up to six radars to be networked together to monitor up to 300 sq km of land.

Blighter MultiWatch is ideal for camp security, border security and key asset protection. It is able to monitor large areas, including complex rocky or mountainous terrain, as well as flat or dune covered desert. The radars can be set up in a circular configuration to provide wide-area surveillance around a camp or site of critical infrastructure or they can also be used as a line of sensors to provide a ‘virtual fence’ at troublesome border spots or along a line of control. Once the threat has passed, the whole MultiWatch system can easily and quickly be dismantled and transported to another area.

Using a self-forming and self-healing wireless mesh network, the system is man-portable and can be set up from backpacks for rapid deployment. The radars are connected back to the BlighterView HMI control station through a number of Wireless Repeater Nodes. The Blighter radars and Wireless Repeater Nodes can be battery powered and/or solar powered for minimal maintenance. The Blighter radar’s Vortex Fast-Scan technology allows all the radars to scan simultaneously with a one second update ensuring that all targets are tracked reliably.

“Blighter MultiWatch provides a cost effective and highly efficient way to monitor a wide area,” said Mark Radford, Director of Security Products at Plextek. “Blighter radars are already being successfully used across the globe to monitor and detect threats, and the addition of Blighter MultiWatch will provide a new level of security for camps, international borders and control lines allowing them to cover much more ground and intercept threats at the earliest possibly opportunity.”

Plextek, the Cambridge-based electronics and communications design consultancy today announced that its Blighter radar is helping to detect and track illegal immigrants trying to enter the USA across the hills on the Mexican Border. Frustrated by the current intruder interception rate in their local area, a group of ranch owners have developed their own state-of-the-art multi-sensor surveillance systems, utilising the Blighter radar, to protect their land and help the enforcement organisations intercept and apprehend the immigrants.

The Blighter radar system detects humans walking over the rocky, hilly landscape that defines a substantial part of the USA/Mexico border. The Blighter electronic-scanning Doppler Ground Surveillance Radar is uniquely able to detect humans in this complex landscape. The combination of advanced Doppler movement filtering combined with fast electronic-scanning allows the Blighter radar to ignore the rocky landscape yet still detect humans walking slowly through the hills at ranges up to 4km.

The Blighter radar’s tall beam allows it to be sited on the hill tops, surveying the whole area with an eagle-eye view. In a single sweep both the hill crests as well as the valleys/canyons are simultaneously scanned whilst still being able to see objects as close as 20 metres away. Any movement detected by the Blighter radar is clearly displayed by coloured markers on a map of the local area. The display can provide additional information about each target including its precise location, size and speed. Zones can be easily defined within the map, which generate audible alerts when an intruder enters or crosses the zone. Zones can also be defined to exclude or ignore areas of known traffic. An optional target tracker called BlighterTrack allows the operators to see the path travelled by the intruders and at the same time filters out unwanted radar detections from wildlife and wind-blown vegetation.

One of the ranch owners commented: “Of all the surveillance equipment we use here the Blighter radar has proven itself to be the most solid, reliable performer of all. It simply never falters. We regularly experience early morning coastal fog that renders our IR cameras useless. The radar then becomes the primary asset at our disposal. In conjunction with the recently added BlighterTrack software, the targets presented are nearly always verifiable illegals. We have reported many groups of aliens based on Blighter’s alarms alone with which the Border Patrol has made apprehensions. With the radar’s feature set we can also apply settings which pretty much rule out all false targets.”

The complete surveillance system is comprised of the Blighter radar, high performance day/night cameras, acoustic listening and warning system, unattended Ground Sensors and an advanced wireless communication system. All this equipment is remote from a mains power supply and is therefore totally reliant on solar power. The Blighter radar features advanced power saving technology so that maximum operational time is achieved even during the winter months.

The complete Radar system including all power monitoring and control can be remotely accessed over the Internet allowing the operators to control and monitor the system from the comfort and safety of their homes. So far this year the system, operating on an ‘as required’ basis over several kilometres of the border line, has been responsible for detecting hundreds of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the ranchers’ properties.

Plextek will be demonstrating its Blighter radars at ASIS 2009, September 21-24, Anaheim, CA, US on stand 963.

• Longer detection ranges, faster scanning and wider scan angles extend Blighter’s class-leading intruder detection capability

Plextek, the Cambridge-based specialists in electronics design and supply of surveillance products has announced a number of important performance enhancements to its range of Blighter ground surveillance radar, including significantly extended detection ranges and support for wider scan angles as well as introducing its new ‘Vortex Fast-Scan’ technology. These new features further enhance the radars capability to deliver class-leading ‘Persistent Surveillance’, offering unrivalled protection against both conventional and asymmetric threats.

The radar’s scanning speed has been dramatically improved using Blighter’s ‘Vortex Fast-Scan’ technology across the whole Blighter Surveillance range. These modes employ Plextek’s new multi-beam electronic-scanning technology, and maintain Blighter’s ability to detect ultra-slow movement, something which mechanically scanned radars cannot achieve.

In addition, the Blighter B400 Series radars now feature new range modes that extend detection ranges out to either 16 or 32 km. These radars, which are ideal for fixed or mobile applications, can also be configured to detect a walking person in excess of 10 km.

Plextek is also releasing the Blighter B202 Mk 2, Plextek’s new lightweight and compact radar, suited to man-portable and mobile applications. The B202 Mk 2 incorporates new features including an 8 km capability, enhanced antennas enabling an impressive 90 degree electronic-scan angle as well as incorporating the new ‘Vortex Fast-Scan’ technology.

Mark Radford, Plextek’s Director of Security Products comments: “Blighter radars have been proven to greatly increase the response capability and effectiveness of military and/or security personnel. These impressive new enhancements perfectly meet our customers’ needs for high performance, accurate and reliable intruder detection.”

Blighter e-scan radars use modern solid-state electronics and have no moving parts, thereby removing the requirement for routine maintenance as well as offering dramatic improvements in reliability over traditional mechanically rotating radars. The radars also offer exceptional target detection performance in rocky, mountainous terrain. Blighter surveillance products address a broad range of security requirements in the defence, homeland security and civil/commercial markets. Blighter radars are part of a range of advanced Plextek technologies that provide class-leading protection against both conventional and asymmetric terrorist threats. Blighter is currently being used by the UK MoD to meet an urgent operational requirement.

To see a Blighter demonstration, please visit Plextek’s stand No. 498 at DSEi.

• Sustained growth in export sales and the continued development of breakthrough technologies secures awards for Innovation and International Trade Queen’s Awards International Trade

Plextek, the Cambridge-based electronics and communications design consultancy today announced that it has won two coveted Queen’s Awards for Innovation and International Trade. Plextek has shown superb growth in its international sales, nearly trebling exports over the last three years to an aggregate of £48m. The company has also been recognised for its continued innovation, particularly in the field of wireless technologies, as illustrated by the success of its Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) radio devices and its “Blighter” electronic scanning radar technology.

Colin Smithers, co-founder and managing director of Plextek comments: “Plextek, by its very nature, sells innovation and for the last 20 years has been continually developing the best and most effective new technologies for our diverse clients. This innovative culture and advanced technology has helped fuel impressive international sales growth, particularly in the US, Far East and Middle East. It’s a proud feeling knowing that our talented team’s hard work has been recognised and rewarded with, not one, but two prestigious Queen’s Awards.”

Plextek wins the Innovation award for continued innovation in all facets of its business of communications system and product design, in particular the wide commercial application of its proprietary UNB technology and various radar based projects.

Plextek’s Blighter family of portable and fixed electronic scanning radar systems were selected and purchased last year by the UK Ministry of Defence for an ‘urgent operational requirement’ (UOR) and continue to outperform rivals in intruder detection and target identification. Blighter radars have been sold into Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the US.

The UNB technology has formed the core of a low power transmitter system designed for the UK Ministry of Defence enabling communications between military vehicles in convoys, with minimum risk of enemy detection. UNB-based wireless meter readers, with a battery life of ten years, have also been developed for domestic gas and electricity suppliers. Similar systems based on UNB have been developed to monitor hospital cardiac patients, for controlling street lighting and for covertly monitoring stolen vehicles. Plextek continues to design and supply stolen vehicle recovery systems for TRACKER Network in the UK and LoJack Corporation in the US. To date, TRACKER has recovered 17,800 stolen vehicles in the UK resulting in 1700 arrests.

Plextek originated as a pure design consultancy but, after the 2001 tech recession, also turned its hand to product manufacturing and supply. Consequently Plextek displaced a major multinational supplier to become LoJack’s sole supplier to all the licensees for its proprietary in-car stolen vehicle recovery devices. Plextek designed tracking units have been fitted in over 5 million vehicles across 28 countries. The success of this technology has been a key factor in winning the International award for Trade.

For more information on the prestigious Queens Awards for Enterprise please visit The Queen’s Awards Website

Plextek, the Cambridge-based electronics and communications design consultancy, announced today that it has been awarded a contract worth around $3.5 million (£1.75 million) for the supply of its innovative Blighter radar systems. The electronic-scan (e-scan) ground surveillance radars are for a UK MoD urgent operational requirement (UOR). Plextek will be working alongside Ultra Electronics SML Technologies, who are lead systems integrator for the radars. Delivery of the initial units is scheduled for Q4 2008.

Blighter e-scan radars use modern solid-state electronics and have no moving parts, thereby removing the requirement for routine maintenance as well as offering dramatic improvements in reliability over traditional rotating radars. Blighter radars also offer exceptional target detection performance in rocky, mountainous terrain.

Blighter surveillance products address a broad range of security requirements in the defence, homeland security and civil/commercial markets. Blighter radars are part of a range of advanced Plextek technologies that provide class-leading protection against both conventional and asymmetric terrorist threats.

Colin Smithers, MD of Plextek stated “We are delighted that the UK MoD has recognised the numerous technical merits of the Blighter radar and has chosen to use it for such a critical application”.