The short answer is: yes, but with caveats. Over the last few years the radar market has shifted from large mechanically scanned systems toward compact, solid-state phased arrays. That transition is now being driven into civilian use cases where high update rate, precise angular accuracy, and low SWaP (size, weight, and power) matter — think counter-UAS, public-safety airspace monitoring, BVLOS detect-and-avoid, and perimeter protection.

What’s different about modern phased arrays? Traditional mechanically scanned radars point a physical antenna and wait. An active electronically scanned array or AESA forms and steers beams electronically with almost no moving parts. The big civilian win is instantaneous beam agility, multi-beam capability, and the ability to do digital beamforming and adaptive processing at each element to suppress clutter or separate closely spaced contacts. Those properties are exactly what makes small drones hard to detect with legacy systems and valuable when you need precision geolocation and cueing for cameras or mitigation systems.

Metamaterials and MESA: lowering cost and SWaP. One commercial approach that has been prominent in the civilian space is metamaterials based electronically scanned arrays. Firms using those architectures advertise much smaller, lighter apertures that still deliver fine angular resolution for short to medium ranges. The result is radars that can be truck-, rooftop-, or drone-mounted for tasks that used to need a dedicated military radar site. Echodyne’s MESA products have been integrated into detect-and-avoid and C-UAS deployments and promoted for public safety and BVLOS roles.

Examples on the market. Fortem Technologies and Echodyne are two clear examples of vendors offering phased-array AESA products for civil and commercial customers. Fortem’s TrueView family advertises small AESA radars with onboard AI for low-altitude drone detection and claims low SWaP performance targeted at C-UAS and integration with camera systems. Echodyne’s EchoGuard and EchoShield lines target short and medium range detection with specific frequency versions tuned for local regulatory bands. These are not research demos; they are fielded products being used for asset protection, event security, and to support BVLOS detect-and-avoid systems.

Regulatory and integration realities. Hardware availability is only part of the story. Radar transmitters operate in regulated bands and usually require FCC equipment authorization and possibly licensing or coordination depending on output and band. Equally important for airborne applications is FAA approval of any detect-and-avoid capability used to satisfy BVLOS safety requirements. A recent example from May 2024 illustrates the point: an AiRanger UAS with integrated Echodyne radar was part of a package used in a first-of-its-kind FAA waiver for commercial BVLOS operations. That approval came from a combination of platform integration, communications, and DAA capability — not from radar alone. Also note that FCC equipment grants routinely state that FCC authorization does not equal FAA operational approval. Plan for both regulatory tracks when integrating radar into civil aviation systems.

Civilian use cases and why phased arrays matter

  • Counter-UAS and perimeter security: AESA radars give fast revisit rates and angle-of-arrival accuracy to cue EO/IR and RF sensors, lowering false alarms in cluttered environments.
  • BVLOS detect-and-avoid: airborne or podded phased arrays with suitable range and update rate are now part of certifiable DAA stacks on larger commercial UAS. Recent BVLOS waivers show how radar is being used to satisfy right-of-way and separation requirements.
  • Infrastructure monitoring and industrial inspection: compact phased arrays can be mounted on towers or vehicles to provide persistent airspace awareness at critical sites where optical sensors alone cannot be trusted in bad weather.

Limitations and tactical considerations for civilian adopters

  • Range and radar cross section: small consumer drones have tiny RCS values and low airspeeds. Shorter wavelength radars can resolve small drones but are more impacted by foliage and weather. Increasing sensitivity typically raises cost and power. Expect tradeoffs between aperture size, frequency band, and true detection range. (Vendor spec sheets should be read carefully against real-world RCS numbers.)
  • Clutter and false alarms: urban environments create multipath, ground clutter, and bird returns. Modern systems rely heavily on digital signal processing, micro-Doppler analysis, and AI classification to separate drones from benign contacts. That capability varies by vendor.
  • Interference and spectrum access: many small-array systems operate in band segments shared with other services. You will need to coordinate use and confirm equipment certification for your region. The FCC and equivalent national agencies have rules you must follow.
  • Countermeasure exposure: civilian phased arrays are more resilient to simple jamming than traditional single-beam systems because they can null interferers and steer around them. Still, they are not immune. Expect that in contested environments sophisticated RF denial or spoofing can degrade performance. Consider sensor fusion and redundancy as part of system design.

Practical advice for procurement and deployment

  • Define the mission first. Detection range, update rate, and angular accuracy needed to cue cameras or avoid traffic will determine whether a compact AESA or a larger search radar is appropriate. Don’t buy on headline claims alone.
  • Insist on data fusion. Radar plus RF direction-finding plus EO/IR gives the best combination of reach, classification, and legal evidence for mitigation actions. Vendors typically provide APIs for integration; test end-to-end.
  • Verify regulatory clearances early. If you plan airborne DAA or any transmitter installation near people, get FCC and FAA guidance up front. Some radar modules are certified for specific bands in fixed installations while different approvals apply for airborne pods.
  • Budget for software and lifecycle updates. A phased-array radar’s value is often in the signal processing and classifier models. The hardware is important but the firmware and ML models are where false positives get cut and reliable tracks emerge. Plan for periodic updates.

Bottom line. By mid-2024 phased-array radar moved decisively from the military niche into real civilian roles. Compact AESA and metamaterial arrays mean you can now buy radars with tactical properties that were previously exclusive to defense customers. That opens useful new capabilities for BVLOS UAS, public-safety airspace awareness, and infrastructure protection. The catch is integration and regulation: successful civilian use requires careful system design, spectrum compliance, and, for aviation applications, coordination with the FAA. If you are an integrator or operator, treat the radar as a tightly coupled sensor suite component, not as a plug-and-play magic box. The tactical and operational details still determine whether a system will perform in the real world.