Authorities of Moldova to Pay €14.5 mln for Ground Master 200 Thales Radar

The radar which the Moldovan government plans to buy is the French Ground Master 200 Thales. The same radars are offered to Romania. One such system costs about €14.5 million. The money to buy the air defense system should be allocated from the state budget, rupor.md reports quoting defenseromania.ro. Ground Master 200 (GM200) is a medium range three-coordinate radar produced by Thales Group, a French aerospace and military electronics company. Technologically, GM200 operates as an air surveillance gap filler or a sensor for an air defense system. “This radar can track artillery, mortar and missile fire, as well as define the launch point and exact place of impact, and perform standard air defense functions against ballistic and cruise missiles. The radar has the dimensions of a 20-foot ISO container and weighs less than ten tons. It can be deployed either permanently or on any chassis capable of carrying 20-foot containers or appropriate watercraft. It is transportable by road, rail, tactical aircraft or helicopter. The GM200 includes power generator unit, mast and room for two workstations with a radio and data set. The system can be set up in 15 minutes and controlled remotely or locally. The GM200 multi-range radar is capable of simultaneously observing the air and the surface, detecting air targets up to 24 km vertically and up to 250 km horizontally (up to 100 km in combat mode) with a coverage angle of 70 degrees. As reported earlier, the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Moldova, Anatolie Nosatii, announced that in a few months Moldova would have an air defence system. Moreover, his statement about a modern military base construction near Chisinau was also released.