Counter-battery radar

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A counter-battery radar is a radar set designed to track the trajectory of incoming artillery and mortar projectiles (typically shells but possibly also rockets) and calculate the location on the ground they were fired from and where they will land. Once these locations are determined, friendly troops in the target area can be warned to take cover or leave the area and friendly artillery or ground attack aircraft can engage the battery or batteries which launched the projectiles with counter-battery fire.

These radars need to be very sensitive and accurate. Although the shells or rockets typically have significant metal content, they are small and moving fast, and the radar has a limited amount of time to detect and track the shell. It needs to get accurate velocity, directional and position information to be able to extrapolate the origin accurately enough to return fire with a significant chance of hitting the launchers. In addition, the coordinates need to be determined and disseminated quickly so that warning can be given early enough to avoid injury or damage to friendly troops and equipment and so that the enemy artillery can be engaged before it has a chance to move on (see shoot-and-scoot).

Rockets are usually larger than shells and may have significant metal content (although many high-performance rocket motors are using composite casings such as carbon fiber now, rather than metal, to allow greater pressure in the combustion chamber). However, because some rockets may maneuver in flight (to correct for wind encountered, for example), this could complicate matters. Most artillery rockets are purely ballistic to cut down on costs and improve reliability, so this is not much of an issue, but this may change in future. Early detection would improve the chances of accurately locating the launchers.