English: CW4 Dallas Whitney (left) and MAJ Ben Luper, both of Combined Joint Task Force-82 Joint Fires Cell, stand next to an AN/TPQ-48v2 Lightweight Counter-mortar Radar at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan, January 2010.
The armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have captured the remains of a US-made AN/TPQ-48 Lightweight Counter Mortar Radar (LCMR) from Ukrainian forces.
On March 17, DPR forces shared photos showing the damaged antenna of the radar, which was captured near the city of Maryinka.
The forces of the DPR and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) have been taking part in the Russian special military operation in Ukraine since its start on February 24.
#RussiaUkraine
An American portable AN/TPQ-48 counter-battery radar was captured by the #DPR Militia during the fighting for #Maryinka. There are reports that several American instructors / contractors have been killed in the fighting….waiting for more info atm pic.twitter.com/GWSrclmlnD— Tony (@Cyberspec1) March 17, 2022
The SRCTec AN/TPQ-48 is a man portable system, designed to detect, track and locate primarily mortars, with later versions able to also track rockets. It provides 360-degree surveillance using an electronically scanned antenna. It has two separate modes of operation; sense and warn and counter-fire.
The system, which weighs less than 227 kg, can determining the position of an enemy mortar or rocket battery with an accuracy of 50 meters at a distance of 10 kilometers.
In 2014, the Ukrainian military begin receiving AN/TPQ-48 radar systems from the US. One of the radars was captured by Donbass forces in 2015. In the later years, the US went on to supply Ukraine with the larger AN/TPQ-49 and AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radars.
The US supplied these counter-battery radars on the hopes of improving the accuracy of the Ukrainian artillery. However, they made no noticeable difference in the battlefield.
