In collaboration with the Department of Defense’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), DARPA initiated the Vehicle and Dismount Exploitation Radar (VADER) program to design and deploy a radar system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or small manned aircraft.
Developed for DARPA by Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, VADER provided synthetic aperture radar and ground moving-target indicator data to detect, localize, and track vehicles and dismounted troops.
In February 2011, VADER’s success led the U.S. Air Force to initiate the Dismount Detection Radar (DDR) program to develop and integrate VADER-like capabilities onto UAV Reapers. In July 2012, Raytheon was selected as lead DDR program developer.
A subcontract to BAE Electronic Systems called for development of the DDR's radar command, control, processing, exploitation, dissemination and mission-planning modules.
