Radar fell off screen at home, but sells well in Sri Lanka

A high-tech radar capable of monitoring small boats operated by drug dealers and terrorists and developed with Canadian tax dollars is being installed in Sri Lanka after the federal government decided it couldn't use the system.
The high-frequency surface wave radar, developed at a cost of $39 million by Ottawa defence scientists and Raytheon Canada, had been hailed several years ago by federal officials as the only one of its kind in the world and a major boost for domestic security.
The federal government set aside $43 million to build and operate eight radar sites on the East and West coasts as part of its push to improve security in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S.
But the government has shut down the existing experimental radar sites in Newfoundland and the program has been cancelled.

The project was derailed after one complaint was received that the radar interfered with civilian communications. The experimental radars had been operating for 10 years without a complaint.
But Raytheon Canada, which builds the high-frequency surface wave radar, is pushing ahead with marketing the system to other nations. It has sold the radar to Sri Lanka with the help of the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown agency that helps firms market their products overseas. Other international customers are being lined up, said Raytheon Canada vice-president Denny Roberts.
"The technology works," said Mr. Roberts. "Other countries don't seem to have a problem with it."
Mr. Roberts said the U.S. State Department informed the company Jan. 15 that the high-frequency radar is not subject to U.S. government regulations since it is designed to track vessels within a nation's own waters and because of that is not considered military equipment. In the past, the State Department has prevented sales of Canadian defence products to other countries by citing regulations that can limit where equipment with U.S.-made parts might be sold.
Raytheon Canada, which is owned by a U.S. parent corporation, will now boost its marketing efforts on the high-frequency radar. "Now that means that all my people in Raytheon will be clued in to sell it worldwide," Mr. Roberts said.
Other nations besides Sri Lanka have expressed an interest in purchasing the radar.
The radar is unique in that it can track ships at much greater distances than regular surveillance systems. It can detect objects as far away as 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) offshore.
The information gathered by the radar network was to have been fed into the navy's surveillance centres in Halifax and Esquimalt, B.C., and shared with various federal agencies.
Canada has been leading development in the area of surface wave radar technology. The British government built a surface wave radar system during the Second World War, but it had limited range. The technology had not been fully exploited in the aftermath of the war, but with recent advances in computer processing, scientists from Defence Research and Development Canada's Ottawa laboratories decided to revisit the idea.