Vietnam has an eye on the sky with new radar station

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Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corp. formally fired up a second radar station in the central city of Da Nang on Sunday in an effort to boost surveillance and protect the country’s sovereignty.

Vietnam already has a military surveillance radar station on Son Tra Island, dubbed the “Indochina Magical Eye”, which covers hundreds of kilometers of the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea.

A radar data processing system was also put into operation at a flight management center in Da Nang the same day, the government portal said in a statement.

The secondary surveillance system on Son Tra, an island off Da Nang, covers a radius of 450km, while the primary radar system can detect objects at a range of 150 km.

The secondary system detects and measures the position of an aircraft, such as range and bearing, and requests additional information from the aircraft itself such as its identity and altitude. Meanwhile, the primary system only measures the range and bearing of targets by detecting reflected radio signals.

Air traffic control centers in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang have been integrated to receive and process data from the new radar station on Son Tra and other radar stations in the central region to enhance the management of aircraft traveling to and from Vietnamese air space.

The new radar station on Son Tra also supports air traffic management at airports in Hue and Quang Nam provinces, the statement said.

The radar station and processing system were supplied by Spanish IT and defense systems company Indra Sistermas.

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