Saab has launched a deployable, self-contained digital tower system that takes the company’s civilian air traffic control (ATC) capabilities and focuses them on the military market.
The system, known as the r-TWR Deployable, allows ATC to be conducted remotely at a given location, keeping personnel out of harm’s way should the tower be targeted by hostile forces, or can establish ATC capabilities at remote locations, for example during disaster relief operations. It can also be used to resurrect ATC capacity at an airbase that has suffered an equipment failure or been attacked.
Part of Saab’s wider r-TWR family of digital towers, the r-TWR Deployable features a hydraulically erected 25 m mast, which typically features six to eight digital cameras but can also carry a radar or other sensors, and combines this with a compact Saab Digital Tower Module. These components are housed in dual transportable shelters supplied by Finland’s Conlog that can be ballistically or NBC protected, hardened against cyber attack, and are airliftable by a C-130 or larger transport aircraft. The system, which features a built-in generator and uninterruptable power supply capability, can be deployed and operational within an hour using three technicians.
Briefing on the system at the Paris Air Show on 21 June 2023, Niclas Gustavsson, vice president of products and services for Saab Digital Traffic Solutions, said, “It’s absolutely clear there’s a need in the market” for the r-TWR Deployable, adding, “Every time we show this, the customers react and say ‘I need that’. … There’s a lot of focus on how you fly, but if you don’t get into the air in a safe way there is no air force up there.”
Gustavsson added that the r-TWR Deployable, which was first unveiled on 16 June 2023 at the Turku Airshow in Finland, will be conducting customer demonstrations throughout the summer before being showcased around Europe in the autumn and then globally in 2024.
Meanwhile, a static version of the r-TWR digital tower family is close to being formally certified for military operations by the UK Royal Navy. This system has the digital tower located at Predannack Airfield on The Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, while the operation control centre is located at nearby Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose.
Peter Felstead
