Projects to support co-existence of offshore wind farms and UK air defence systems win £3.8m

The Wind farm Mitigation for UK Air Defence competition aims to reduce the impact of offshore wind farms on Air Defence surveillance

Seven projects have been awarded £3.8 million in funding to develop technologies that support the co-existence of offshore wind farms and UK air defence systems.

It is being provided under the second phase of the Wind farm Mitigation for UK Air Defence competition, which aims to reduce the impact of offshore wind farms on Air Defence (AD) surveillance.

Winning projects include introducing advanced nano-scale Radar Absorbing Material (nRAM) at the manufacturing stage of offshore wind farms, developing a novel metasurface manufacturing method for the mitigation of radar clutter caused by wind farms and designing and demonstrating multi-static radar systems using a validated synthetic environment to provide continuous all-weather air surveillance in and around wind farms.

The competition was funded through the BEIS Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and delivered by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) with the support of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstle).

Wing Commander Kevin Walton, Co-Chair of the Ministry of Defence/Offshore Wind Industry Council Air Defence Mitigation Task Force said: “Offshore wind will play a major role in achieving our net zero targets. The technology being developed in this competition will help the UK achieve its renewable energy targets without compromising the surveillance of UK airspace.

“In addition, the technology being developed will help boost UK prosperity, entrepreneurs and innovators by investing in innovative technologies.

“Phase 2 of this competition develops on the Phase 1 activities and moves further to identify operational systems that will help enable the coexistence of offshore wind farms and the UK’s Air Defence and ATC surveillance systems.”

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