FEATURE MILITARY, AEROSPACE & DEFENCE
FROM EARLY WARNING OF ballistic missiles to vehicle-mounted communications...
Founded in 1925, MPE designs, develops and manufactures high performance
EMC/EMP filters and capacitor products. Rachael
Morling met up with Paul Currie, sales & marketing director, to find out about some of the company’s military & defence applications
O
perational since 1963, RAF Fylingdales on the North Yorkshire
Moors is an integral part of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) for UK and US defence. Its secondary duty is detecting, reporting and tracking satellite activity. The facility is vitally important to
providing continuous ballistic missile early warning and space surveillance services to the UK and US Governments. Today, as technology is ever increasing the strike range of ICBMs – intercontinental ballistic missiles – its significance to the international community has never been greater. Based in Liverpool, MPE has had a
relationship with RAF Fylingdales for over 25 years, with one of its projects being the design and supply of EMP protection filters for its solid-state radar array system back in the late 1980s. So, when Fylingdales decided to
upgrade its facility to meet the present, internationally applied, US Standard Mil-Std-188-125, including upgrades to the previously installed EMP filters, it contacted MPE. This contract was for the supply of a complete suite of HEMP powerline, control line and telephone line filters – including a number of MPE’s high-current HEMP filters up to 800A. The HEMP powerline filters consist of
a single circuit with no current-sharing elements. This avoids the problems inherent in high-current filters which are based on the paralleling of multiple lower current filters. This paralleling may lead to significant overheating and possible failure in the lowest-resistance filter, unless it has an appreciable safety margin in terms of temperature rise. If a parallel element fails, then the increased load placed on the remaining interconnected filters can potentially cause a cascade failure of the entire
18 JUNE 2018 | DESIGN SOLUTIONS
HEMP protection system. With MPE’s single-circuit design there is no danger of that happening, the company explains. One benefit for this application was
MPE’s ability to design and supply custom filters mechanically identical to those being replaced. The filters were installed by MPE’s project partner, the US Department of Defense (DoD) contractor, Jaxon Engineering & Maintenance of Colorado Springs. The original EMP power line filters were
designed and manufactured by MPE in 1990-1991 and tested to an earlier NATO EMP specification. They had been in continuous service ever since. So, 42 original MPE power line filters were removed from the site to undergo a full inspection and testing process to check for any degradation or deterioration in performance. These were all found to be operating completely within their original manufacturing parameters, with no degradation in capacitor performance.
THE FALCON PROJECT In another application, MPE has provided high-reliability, high-performance EMC, EMP and TEMPEST specification filters for the
MPE has provided high-reliability, high-performance EMC, EMP and TEMPEST specification filters for the vehicle-mounted Falcon mobile shelter program. The system is carried on an HX60 truck
vehicle-mounted Falcon mobile shelter program. This is the battlefield broadband, ground-based, communications system from BAE Systems.
Falcon assists and supports ISTAR, “RAF
Fylingdales on the North Yorkshire Moors is an integral part of the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System
(BMEWS) for UK and US defence”
RAF Fylingdales
the process of integrating the intelligence process with surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance tasks, in order to improve commanders’ situational awareness and, consequently, their decision-making. The increase in the use of ISTAR assets delivering huge quantities of video imagery and information demands systems which are capable of handling large amounts of data. Meeting these requirements, Falcon is fundamental to the UK Armed Forces in providing robust, high-capacity,
network services right across
the battlefield. Here, MPE supplied a 63A
filter for the main incoming
power feed, a 32A EMP filter for the interior of the shelter, six 10A TEMPEST filters inside the shelter, and a 20A feedthrough capacitor. Providing secure, high-capacity voice, data and video communications, staff at command headquarters can operate across up to four separate security domains on a wide area network. The Falcon system is carried on the British Army’s standard MAN 4x4, six-tonne, HX60 truck for mobility and flexibility.
MPE
www.mpe.co.uk
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