{"id":28057,"date":"2026-09-30T10:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T04:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=28057"},"modified":"2026-09-30T14:17:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T08:47:11","slug":"unified-complex-radio-antenna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/unified-complex-radio-antenna\/","title":{"rendered":"Unified Complex Radio Antenna"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Unified Complex Radio Antenna Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Japan recently called on India to fast-track internal official processing of the agreement on the UNICORN (Unified Complex Radio Antenna) naval radar system.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Unified Complex Radio Antenna\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UNICORN, also known as <\/span><b>NORA-50<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is a <\/span><b>shipborne integrated antenna system.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>mast with integrated communication systems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that is engineered to dramatically <\/span><b>enhance a warship&#8217;s stealth <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and situational awareness.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Developed jointly by three Japanese companies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (NEC Corporation, Sampa Kogyo K.K., and The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd.), the system is <\/span><b>already in service aboard Japan\u2019s Mogami-class frigates.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>What does UNICORN do?<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Conventional warships<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> typically carry <\/span><b>several exposed antennas<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2013 for radar, communications, and electronic warfare \u2013 bolted onto a mast.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Each of these surfaces adds to a ship\u2019s radar cross-section, making it easier for an adversary to detect.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>UNICORN <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">does away with that arrangement by <\/span><b>consolidating multiple antennas into a single enclosed radome mounted on one mast<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, cutting down the number of reflective surfaces a hostile radar can pick up.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its design stacks the antennas vertically inside a <\/span><b>bar-shaped dome,<\/b> <b>moving components<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such as the tactical air navigation antenna<\/span><b> from an exposed position at the top of the mast to a more sheltered spot lower down.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A lightning diverter strip runs across the mast&#8217;s surface as a safety measure, given the exposure of ships at sea to lightning strikes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Inside this unified mast<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are several <\/span><b>vital subsystems,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> including those for tactical data links, Tactical Air Navigation Systems (TACAN), Identification Friend or Foe (IFF), Electronic Support Measures (ESM), and general communications.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This innovation significantly <\/span><b>reduces the cross-section of naval platforms,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> thereby <\/span><b>enhancing their stealth characteristics <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and enabling them to operate with <\/span><b>reduced electronic signatures.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyond stealth, the system is also designed to <\/span><b>reduce mutual interference between closely packed antennas,<\/b> <b>improve the range<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at which external radio signals can be detected, and <\/span><b>simplify installation and maintenance.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>India-Japan Agreement:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India and Japan signed a Memorandum of Implementation (MOI) on 15 November <\/span><b>2024 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for the <\/span><b>co-development of<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> UNICORN masts.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>first military hardware co-development pact between the two countries.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Japan <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will p<\/span><b>rovide the design and engineering support, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">while <\/span><b>India <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will handle <\/span><b>integration, adaptation, and co-production through Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The integrated mast is expected to gradually <\/span><b>replace <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">existing communication and <\/span><b>sensor mast systems across the Navy&#8217;s fleet.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_delhi\/issues\/206787\/OPS\/GJMGJLVGN.1+GAKGJNIJD.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>TH<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unified Complex Radio Antenna, also known as NORA-50, is a shipborne integrated antenna system. Read more about Unified Complex Radio Antenna, Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":126907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,10581,22,23],"class_list":["post-28057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-unified-complex-radio-antenna","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126922,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28057\/revisions\/126922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}