Electronics for advanced radar systems

Multi-year project at a global electronics company

From the end of 2021, one of our software engineers will be involved in a multi-year project at a global electronics company active in the fields of aviation, defence and information technology. A multinational company with offices in several countries around the world. Among other things, this company develops electronic devices and equipment and builds aeroplanes, spacecraft and naval vessels. It also manufactures electronic systems for the transport sector.

“I can really sink my teeth into complex technical problems and develop different strategies to arrive at a solution.” Jasja

Challenging technical issue

Engineero has been engaged as a knowledge partner to contribute ideas and work on a specific project within the department that is developing a fire control system for naval vessels. This system can protect a ship against attacks from the air and on the water. Nowadays, threats are becoming faster, smarter and more complex. To counter these threats, advanced radar systems, missiles with complex behaviour that fly five times faster than the speed of sound, and cannons with precision-guided ammunition are available.

When naval vessels face multiple simultaneous threats, it becomes increasingly difficult for human operators to take efficient and effective protective measures. The fire control system ensures that operators receive the right information quickly and can make the right decision to take action within seconds. The combination of the latest generation of sensors and an intelligent fire control system continuously determines the most appropriate methods to combat the detected threats. The fire control system combines radar information with an intelligent algorithm designed to support long-range weapon systems in targeting, tracking and hitting the target.

Engineering expertise

As an experienced Java software engineer, I am involved in the specification, implementation and testing of the fire control system. My work includes developing the information protocols and messages that are exchanged between end users, the components of the fire control system, the various sensors and the weapon systems. Message validation, the handling logic in various components, code quality and ensuring that the many functional and technical specification requirements are met in the code play a major role in this. The fire control system is being developed as a generic product, whereby the configurable building blocks can be reused for specific customer projects, which involve naval vessels that are always configured differently.”

Scrum methodology

During product development, a large number of teams use the Scrum methodology, which allows incremental enhancements and improvements to be implemented in the fire control system in short periods of time. Jenkins build pipelines are used for the continuous integration of software changes. The various components of the fire control system are deployed on a Kubernetes cluster using Podman container technology. This is a runtime test environment that matches as closely as possible the final production environment in which a naval vessel will operate.

"In this project, it is very satisfying to be able to really get to grips with complex technical problems and develop different strategies to arrive at a solution. It's nice to be able to help colleagues from different disciplines. There is a high level of knowledge and a strong focus on knowledge sharing and collaboration within the team and between teams. This means you learn new things every day, both on a technical level and within the functional domain of a fire control system." - Jasja

Engineering Projects

Our engineers work on technical issues and challenges in various markets. Each market requires different expertise. Our technical specialists therefore use their knowledge and skills to find the right answers to challenging questions. In this way, we work with our customers to find solutions that make people's lives easier.