£46m air defence radar to protect Falklands from Argentina
 

Daily Telegraph The new vehicle-mounted radar will be able to spot threats up to 75 miles away and the first systems will be delivered before the end of the year.

Presumably the Govt thinks that Argentina really will find the wherewithal to procure new aircraft capable of threatening the islands.

or, perhaps as a lesson from the 80s the govt is giving the message "don't bother thinking about it - our big stick is working and still here".

posture is a big part of the defence doctrine after all - and deterrence is surely better & cheaper than actually having to use your forces.

Hmm...wouldn't you want an Air Defence radar to be able to spot targets a bit further than 75 miles away?

Just part of the Rapier GBAD replacement system, not the AD radars.

Maybe it's nothing to do with Argentina.

Maybe someone in Government knows a guy with a radar that they would sell for only 46 million quids.

Or... maybe someone in government had 46 million quid to spare and the radar company were happy to oblige.

Not if the best they can throw at you might be a couple of vintage 172's:E.

Mathias Rust did ok in a 172.

The focus isn't really the Falklands. UK forces already use these radars, they idea is that they are easy to transport and more suitable for supporting army combat forces. 70 miles is a reasonable range for a radar when the SAM (CAMM) has a range of 25-45km and the main targets of interest are low level attack aircraft, helicopters and missiles. It's not meant for theatre air defence, that role is assigned to fighters and AWACS.

From wiki:
+ automatic hovering helicopter detection
+ artillery and mortar locating function
+ A skilled crew can deploy the radar in around 10 minutes and recover it in around 6 minutes