Swedish Defense and security company Saab - a leading supplier of Maritime Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) - introduced a breakthrough in AIS technology, with the unveiling of its fifth generation R5 family of products.

"Our new R5 AIS products are the first to incorporate software-defined radio (SDR) transceivers together with newly developed high-speed analog-to-digital converters," says Gunnar Mangs, Vice President Saab TransponderTech, and continues:

"The result is a dramatic improvement in receiver sensitivity, stability and signal processing."

Saab plans to roll out the new R5 technology in a wide range of AIS products to meet different market requirements, including inland waterways, coastal fishing, deep-sea shipping, military and coastal surveillance. The products will be brought to market in phases during 2011 and 2012.
 
"The SDR technology in the R5 products provides unlimited flexibility in adding new radio channels with software upgrades in the future," said Gunnar Mangs.

"In addition to VHF ship-to-ship and shore-to-ship AIS messages, the R5 will also be able to process DGPS beacon signals and future satellite AIS messages and e-navigation radio channels.”