What was Ouzo carrying?
Ouzo is known to have been carrying a ‘six-inch octahedral radar reflector’ although the MAIB report of 12 April does not state what make. The MAIB report states: ‘Although any radar reflector is better than none, the type of reflector fitted to Ouzo can theoretically produce a reasonable peak increase in the RCS but, in practice, its overall performance is poor, and it is now evident that at best there was only a 50% probability that the ship would have been able to detect Ouzo on the radar at close range.’ The Qinetiq report states that short-range visibility (less than 2.6NM) of a radar reflector is very poor with an RCS of one metre squared. The current ISO8729 only requires 0.625 square metres RCS at all angles of heel up to 20°. It continues: ‘For radar reflectors with an RCS of two square metres and above the probability of being tracked inside 2NM increases significantly’ Items on test The report tested nine products ranging in price from £16 (Plastimo 16″) to £2,000 (POLARef 1
