Kelvin Hughes is celebrating 70 years of radar in 2017. In 1947 the first Type 1 radar was produced and installed on a new fishing trawler, the Type 1 then went on to be the first type approved radar, gaining its type approval certificate on 11th August 1948, the first radar to do so.
Kelvin Hughes, a world leader in maritime navigation and security surveillance radar, has a long and proud history stretching back over 250 years. Over the course of that period, the company has been responsible for a number of significant technology ‘firsts’, including the first navigation radar for commercial ships to be type-approved.
This was the Kelvin Hughes Type 1 radar and its introduction was a significant milestone in maritime history. Since then, radar for commercial ships, fishing vessels, coastguard patrol vessels, and warships has come a long way and Kelvin Hughes has been a key player in the developments that have taken place.
In 2006, the company launched the first commercially available, solid-state maritime navigation radar. By removing the need for a magnetron, SharpEye™ has increased radar reliability, reduced the total cost of ownership and enhanced the user’s situational awareness all at the same time. In 2010, Kelvin Hughes brought SharpEye™ to Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) and coastal surveillance applications, the first time that solid-state technology had been available to these markets. 2013 saw the launch of the world’s first upmast multipurpose navigation radar to be located in a carbon composite housing with stealth (low radar cross section) characteristics. In the same year, the company also launched the SharpEye™ SxV, the first 360˚ X-Band, pulse Doppler radar for both ground surveillance and marine security applications.
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