Abstract: The pace of modern military operations and the over-the-horizon range capability of many weapons systems impose heavy demands on real-time surveillance and intelligence support. For operations in the littoral zone, there is a clear requirement for a relocatable, shore-based sensor which can provide reliable all-weather detection of small surface and aerial targets of interest out to ranges in excess of 100 kilometres from the coast. HF surface-wave radar (HFSWR) may well provide the most cost-effective solution to this requirement, given the results of recent trials of an experimental system developed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in conjunction with Telstra Applied Technologies and the Cooperative Research Centre for Sensor Signal and Information Processing in Adelaide. This project, code-named Iluka, involved the design and deployment of an HFSWR near Darwin, together with support from various elements of the ADF and other agencies which provided information on air and surface movements of cooperating platforms as well as civilian targets of opportunity within the area monitored by the radar. In this paper we review the technology of HFSWR and discuss its capabilities and limitations in the context of littoral warfare.