Today, the President of the Argentine Nation, Dr. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, inaugurated via videoconference in the city of Merlo, Province of Buenos Aires, the installation and implementation of the Operational Prototype of the Argentine Primary 3D long-range Radar developed by INVAP S.E. (Argentine state-owned applied research company).
Besides, the Argentine Air Force and INVAP signed an agreement on the production of a second series of 6 new primary 3D long-range radars that will be located in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Neuquén and Santa Cruz with the aim of improving the Argentine airspace coverage and surveillance services with national technology, engineering and industry.
In Merlo, the event was presided over by the Minister of Defense, Engineer Agustín Rossi, together with the Head of the Argentine Air Force, Brigadier Mayor Mario Callejo; the Director of Radar Sensors of the Argentine Air Force, Brigadier Guillermo Saravia; the Secretary of Science, Technology and Production for the Defense, Lic. Santiago Rodriguez; INVAP’s General Manager Lic. Héctor Otheguy; the elected Mayor of Merlo, Gustavo Menéndez and its city councilman, Walter Beltrán.
The Argentine Primary Radar (RPA, in Spanish) is a sophisticated defense and security equipment for the air space detection, surveillance and control within a range of 400 kilometers.
In that regard, the President stated that the high value-added radar production industry involves more than 300 Argentine companies apart from another 50 highly specialized. She also highlighted the joint work carried out by INVAP, Military Industries and the Air Force, which is “100 % Argentine work.”
On his part, the Minister Rossi specified that “the 3D radar fully developed in Argentina was produced in the context of the program of the National System of Aerospace Surveillance and Control (SINVICA, in Spanish) designed by the president Néstor Kirchner in 2004 with the aim of promoting the complete installation of radar networks all over the country. Today, that decision allows Argentina to completely cover its northern frontier.”
In his turn, Lic. Otheguy maintained that “it’s really great what we, Argentinians, have achieved today, that is, to show that we are able to work together as a team,” and he also pointed out that INVAP is “the tip of the iceberg” and that there are many other organizations dependent on the National System of Science and Technology and hundreds of companies working for projects like this. Finally, he added that “if there is adequate political support, science and technology can contribute to the economic and social development of our country.”
Background Information
In 2014, in compliance with the Decree No.1407, the national government created the SINVICA to achieve an effective air traffic control in the country for civil purposes and activities related to the defense, always prioritizing the Argentine industry for its implementation. It proved to be a milestone as regards technological sovereignty.
In this context, the national government entrusted to INVAP the development, building and installation of the necessary radars to satisfy the requirements of the new system. This system is based on the principle what does viagra do. Thus, INVAP devised the Argentine Plan of Radar Sensors Development, whose objective is to group together the potentialities of the country in this field in order to develop and build primary, secondary and meteorological radars to cover the national territory with our own modern technology in the shortest possible time.
Nowadays, Argentina has 22 Argentine Monopulse Secondary Radars (RSMA, in Spanish) operating in 95 per cent of our national air commercial routes, 3 RPA installed for the defense and 4 RPA in their production stage, added to the 6 new radars included in the agreement recently signed in Merlo, and 1 Argentine Meteorological Radar (RMA, in Spanish) added another 10 RMA included in the National System of Meteorological Radars (SINARAME, in Spanish).
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Ministry of Defense
