So what use would a private citizen or business have for a system like this? I'm not sure who the "commercial offerings" are meant for.
this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2026
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ITT: A bunch of people who think they know a lot about radar, expect to run their own radar at home, and think they can do it better for cheaper.
Look, if I could point this thing at the ground and get soil moisture at depth, I wouldn't be in this situation ok.
Now do the Internet please.
Seems really cool but I'll need to read more on this! I dont fully get it
Ukraine: "Write that down! WRITE THAT DOWN!"
This doesn't have any practical application in Ukraine.
Ukraine detects FPV drones with numerous distributed and networked microphone/acoustic sensors. You're not going to get any cheaper than a used phone paired with a $2 USB solar panel.
The larger Shahed/Geran and above stuff isn't limited by radar detection. What they need are cheap interceptors to deal with swarm attacks.
Radars are very much in use in Ukraine. There is a whole range of air targets besides FPV drones, there are ballistic missiles, fighter planes, bomber planes, helicopters, gliding bombs, and ships, all of which require a radar to detect.
Acoustic sensors have limited range. By the time it detects a missile, it's already flew one kilometer away, and it's too late to grab your AA gun. Gliding bombs are silent.
Radars have 50+ km range, and allow to shoot bombers and ships from beyond the border with expensive US-provided missiles.
If you crack the combination of "actually cheap" and "reliable interceptor", the US military industrial complex is going to build you your very own Scrooge vault.
“actually cheap” and “reliable interceptor”, the US military industrial complex
This is antithetical to the US military industrial contractor complex doctrine.
And then defense contractors will sell it to the government for a 10,000% markup.
But in all reality they would steal it after the inventor commits suicide with 2 rounds to the back of the head
This doesn’t have any practical application in Ukraine.
How can you be so dismissive? Of course it has practical application in Ukraine.
Game changer. This is going to save me so much on my monthly radar bills.
You're lucky to have that. My radar has ads.
"You've reached your monthly tracking limit. To track additional targets, please upgrade to the Defense+ plan."
There are companies that offer RaaS, basically radar rentals.
Source: my company had a customer who rented a weather radar for a year to do a study on weather patterns in South America
My German U-boat neighbors are seething right now.
The sonar git is still private.
But 12'500 is still much.
250,000. WTF….
You can by a Garmin boat Radar for 10-15K that has a 100 mile range…
What is the point of this mess.
This is a phased array radar system, which is significantly different than the mechanical radars used by boats/ships. A phased array system typically supports near real time tracking of multiple targets since the radar signals are controlled through solid state beam steering.
Mechanical radars like those on boats can only update targets as quickly as the antenna rotates, which can be as slow as 20 RPM for some consumer brands. They are very different beasts. Comparing the two is like comparing a car to a train…
That's a good comparison. I assume you're saying that a car is like a mechanical radar and a train is the phased array, right?
But if you centipede cars they become a train.
Kind of like how if you take a bunch of traditional radar systems, sync their LOs, and add some DSP, you get a phased array. Pretty good analogy, actually.
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by coupling this with the open source stinger project i saw last month do i suddenly have my own patriot defense system?
Nah, that missile was visual tracking. Not radar guided. Also, way too small to intercept anything going high and fast which is generally what the patriot is for. Intercepting an aircraft requires a really powerful motor to give it enough speed and altitude to catch a plane.
This radar could maybe be used with a semi active radar guided missile, where the ground radar lights up the target and the missile just has a detector that homes in on that, which is what early patriots used. But it’s only got a 20km range which isn’t really enough for an anti aircraft system, unless all you’re worried about is something slow and low to the ground like a helicopter or cesna. Need enough time for the radar to detect, identify and lock the target, fire the missile, and have it track to the target, and something moving fast and high will be in and out of the range of the radar before all that can be done. Especially if the target is high up at 10km, which would half the effective range.
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Motii claims that military surplus radars can be had for $10k to $50k,
What, really? Who is buying military surplus radars?
I bet more than one billionaire has them on their doomsday compounds. Who am I kidding, they buy the new $250k system.
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