[IEE EC3 News] Lecture reminder - ASV Radars for RAF Coastal Command, 1940-1945 - 24/10/2019

[Bill Pechey]

Dear Colleague,

You are being sent this reminder message because either you gave your
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I have appended the details of our next lecture and hope to see you
there.

You can download a poster from the following IET web page to display
in your place of work:

https://communities.theiet.org/files/17640

Best wishes,

Bill Pechey
IET Thames Valley Specialised Section

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ASV Radars for RAF Coastal Command, 1940 –1945

Simon Watts

Thursday 24 October 2019 at 7:00pm for 7:30pm

The history of airborne radars developed in the UK for long range
maritime surveillance by the RAF spans from 1940, when ASV Mk.I
entered service on Sunderland and Hudson aircraft, through to the
1980s, when the Searchwater radar entered service on the Nimrod MR2.
This history came to an end in 2010 when the Nimrod MRA4 programme was
cancelled and the Nimrod MR2 taken out of service. This talk will
present the development for Coastal Command of the early Air to
Surface Vessel (ASV) radars during WWII.

Immediately after the start of WWII it became clear that there was an
urgent need for airborne radar to detect U-boats and surface ships.
ASV Mk.I operated on a wavelength of 1.5 m and built on the experience
of the first airborne radar developed at Bawdsey Manor in 1937. It was
soon followed, later in 1940, by a better engineered version, ASV
Mk.II, using a wavelength of 1.7 m. Following the development of the
magnetron, the first UK centimetric (9 cm) ASV radars were developed
with ASV Mk. III entering service in early 1943. This was followed in
1944 by ASV Mk.VI and VIA (9 cm). ASV Mk.VII (3 cm wavelength),
developed initially in 1943, did not enter service until after the
war. These radars were fitted to aircraft such as the Sunderland,
Halifax, Wellington and Warwick, used by Coastal Command.

The design and operation of these radars will be presented, showing
how they were installed in aircraft and describing the performance
they achieved, detecting ships and submarines.

Venue
Van Emden Theatre, Edith Morley, University of Reading RG6 6UR

Contact
Professor Richard Mitchell r.j.mitchell at reading.ac.uk