Weather Detection Systems, Inc. (WDS) was founded in 1991 by president and owner Richard Smeltzer. He envisioned a new technology to not only vastly improve Doppler radar performance but to do it with less power. Sensing the future of tightening government mandates, more restrictive federal guidelines for RF exposure, and more stringent licensing requirements, he set out to reduce RF exposure limits while simultaneously improving performance. Pulling away from conventional thinking, he introduced the first real low-emission, high-performance radar that far out performed the high-power radar designs. The federal government has since increasingly tightened its guidelines for RF exposure making licensing the higher-power radar systems problematic.

WDS is now the world’s leader in the development of high-performance low-emission radar systems. We currently design and manufacture the most technologically advanced Doppler radar systems on the market today.

In 2004 WDS teamed up with Teledyne MEC to further solidify its strength and capabilities in the marketplace. Together we offer extensive expertise in traveling wave tube (TWT) design, Doppler radar hardware design, and signal processing. Teledyne MEC, Vacuum Electronics is the world leader and preferred supplier in the design, development and manufacture of traveling wave tubes used by all branches of the military. Since 1959 their state of the art electronic warfare and radar TWTs are found on nearly all major platforms of the United States military and its allies throughout the world.

WDS provides complete weather radar solutions for broadcast, commercial, government, and research applications.