RANGER: Radars and Early Warning Technologies for Long Distance Maritime Surveillance

In this paper, we present a high-level view of RANGER, a novel platform that combines innovative radar technologies with cutting edge technological solutions for early warning, in view of delivering a surveillance platform offering detection, recognition, identification and tracking of suspicious vessels, i.e. capabilities that exceed those of current radar systems. The RANGER platform consists of two radar technologies, a novel Over-The-Horizon (OTH) Radar combined with a Multiple- input and Multiple-output Radar (MIMO) implemented exploiting the latest photonics advancements, a Uniform Communication Gateway (UCG) for seamless, secure and interoperable integration of radars and legacy systems, an Early Warning System (EWS) exploiting data fusion and deep and adaptable machine learning schemes able to automatically detect radar targets and produce early warnings, an Advanced User Interface (AUI) for visualization of the maritime operational picture, and a Common Information Sharing Environment (CISE) gateway adapter for sharing information with the CISE network. The RANGER system aims at significantly progressing the accuracy and long distance detection, identification and recognition rates as well as improving the provision of early warnings and alerts related to maritime operations, thus drastically improving the response and intervention capacity of related European services.