taken from
Future Martime Surveillance (2nd April 2012)
from Raytheon UK suggest that these aircraft can be use in maritime surveillance at not a lot of cost.
"The Dual Mode Radar Sensor (DMRS) fitted to the Sentinel R Mk1 is currently tuned for operation in the ground environment.
However, with only minor changes to the mission system computing, a maritime mode could be introduced that would enable the detection of surface vessels, and potentially submarine periscopes. This supplementary mode would not degrade performance of the DMRS in the Land environment, where it has recently demonstrated such effective operational utility in both Libya and Afghanistan. [/B]A similar maritime radar mode has already been proven and fielded within the United States (US) Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) solution, the sister radar to the UK DMRS. Further capability enhancement of the Sentinel R Mk1 platform could be achieved through an incremental upgrade programme, adding additional sensors relevant to the maritime domain, such as Automatic Identification System, and Signals Intelligence."
is the cunning plan for the Sentinel post 'stan pull out????