A review of high frequency surface wave radar for detection and tracking of ships

In today’s resource-driven economy, maritime nations are claiming economic borders that extend beyond the continental shelf or the 200 nautical mile (nm) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). However, claiming such large economic area places responsibilities on the parent nation to exercise jurisdiction through surveillance and enforcement. The requirement to see beyond the horizon has long been a goal of maritime security forces. Today, this is largely dependent on cooperative vessels voluntarily communicating their intentions to local shore-side authorities, as well as on those vessel sightings reported by patrollers. Recent advances in technology provide maritime nations with options to provide more systematic surveillance of both cooperative and non-cooperative targets. This paper presents an overview of a land-based High Frequency Surface Wave Radar (HFSWR) used to provide persistent, active, surveillance. The paper demonstrates that these radars have now reached a level of maturity where their performance is predictable and that they can, within known limits, reliably detect and track ocean going vessels throughout the EEZ.