Mobile Artillery Monitoring Battlefield Radar (MAMBA) is a fire finder and counter-battery radar system designed specifically to meet the British Army requirements for a rapidly deployable and highly mobile artillery locating system. The radar is now developed by SAAB Electronic Defence Systems (after EMW was sold to SAAB in June 2006) and Saab Technologies Norway AS. The MAMBA can operate in stand-alone mode or networked with others to cover a huge area in excess of 2,000 square kilometers.
The MAMBA employs the ARTHUR Counter Battery Sensor System mounted on a single Bv206 vehicle. ARTHUR is an acronym for “Artillery Hunting Radar”, is a Counter-battery radar system originally developed jointly for and in close co-operation with the Norwegian and Swedish armed forces by Ericsson Microwave Systems in both Sweden and Norway. It can detect enemy mortars, howitzers and rocket launchers. In addition, it provides secondary surveillance capability for air defense systems and friend artillery impact assessment.
It is a mobile, passive electronically scanned array C-Band radar for the purpose of enemy field artillery acquisition and was developed for the primary role as the core element of a brigade or division level counter battery sensor system. The vehicle carrying the radar was originally a Bandvagn 206 developed and produced by Hägglunds, but is now more often delivered on trucks with ISO fasteners.
The upgraded ARTHUR Mod B meets the British Army’s MAMBA requirement for locating guns, mortars or rockets. It can locate guns at 20 – 25 km and 120 mm mortars at 35 – 40 km with a circular probable error of 0.35% of range. It can determine whether the artillery piece is of artillery-type, rocket-type or mortar-type based upon the curve of the trajectory, the munition’s speed, and its range. The MAMBA was successfully used by the British Army in Iraq and Afghanistan.
