When mounted on an aircraft, they are sometimes known, in British terminology, as air-to-surface-vessel radar — ASV for short.
The range of a surface-search radar is greatly increased compared to other roles due to several aspects of the sea surfaces and the objects in it.
Additionally, as the sides of ships generally rise vertically from the surface, they form partial corner cubes which increases the returned signal.
Offsetting these advantages is the fact that in higher sea states, large waves also create the same signals, making radar clutter a significant problem.
A considerable amount of research into clutter reduction was applied to the naval market.