About Radar and Electronic Warfare

The CSIR’s Radar and Electronic Warfare (EW) area operates as part of the in-house Defence Evaluation Research Institute (DERI) and undertakes contract research, technology support, innovation, operational test and evaluation support, acquisition support, performance requirement studies, expert consultation and training to the South African national Defence Force (SANDF). It collaborates with the international defence research community as well as local and international industries as an integrated part of the national system of innovation.

South African radar knowledge originated from the technology transfer South Africa received from the United Kingdom in 1939. Over the past decades the CSIR has built up a significant capability in the broader field of radar and EW. Four groups work in close cooperation to provide Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) capabilities in platform self-protection, sensors and surveillance, the development of concept demonstrators and prototypes as well as the design, building, operating and maintenance of specialised test and evaluation facilities. The groups are; Radar research and applications group, EW research and application group, Radar experimental development group and the EW experimental development group.

Main products and services are in the fields of platform self-protection, strategic surveillance, modeling and simulation software, test and evaluation facilities and the emerging research areas of persistent real-time surveillance and communications EW. The group boasts specialised radar and EW research, development, test and evaluation facilities. Of particular note is the state-of-the-art sensor and engagement simulation software (SEWES), digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) technology and DRFM based hardware in the loop simulators, and mobile tracking radar and radar cross section (RCS) measurement facilities.