The U.S. Coast Guard has invested in a new weather radar system that will aid in search and rescue missions. The service is implementing the Honywell IntuVue RDR-7000 weather radar system in its Sikorsky Mh-60 Jayhawk and Eurocopter MH-65 Dolphin multimission helicopters.
The new system replaces manual radars with automated tilt-and-gain controls. When airborne the system is tiled to pick up weather at different altitudes. The pilot selects a weather mode, and the system can read data up to 180 nautical miles away. The radar identifies the most “significant” weather to alert to the crew.
Senior Technical Sales Manager of Avionics at Honeywell, Adam Garvich notes how important it is to have automated operations. “Anything that causes the pilots to have to work harder and not focus on their primary flying tasks—that creates specific hazards,” he said.
The IntuVue can detect hail and lightning five to 10 minutes in advance and turbulence up to 60 nautical miles away. Furthermore, the device is smaller, lighter and requires less power.
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