Marine radars are x-band or s-band radar to provide bearing and distance of ships and land targets in vicinity from own ship (radar scanner) for collision avoidance and navigation at sea.

Radar is a vital component for safety at sea and near the shore. Captains need to be able to maneuver theirs ships within feet in the worst of conditions and to be able to navigate “blind”. This means inside a dark room with no visibility they need to safely navigate their way through waters in the worst of weather. Radars are rarely used alone in a marine setting. In commercial ships, they are integrated into a full system of marine instruments including chartplotters, sonar, two-way radio communication devices, and emergency locators (EPIRB).

Marine radar systems can provide very useful radar navigation information for navigators onboard ships. Ship position could be fixed by the bearing and distance information of land target on radar screen.

Marine radar has performance adjustment controls for brightness and contrast, gain, tuning, sea clutter and rain clutter suppression, and other interference reduction. Other common controls consist of range scale, bearing cursor, fix/variable range marker or bearing/distance cursor.