The PANDA detector at the international accelerator Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) in Darmstadt (Germany) will address fundamental questions of hadron physics in high-energy antiproton collisions with fixed hydrogen and nuclear targets.  The PANDA Forward RICH (FRICH) is intended for identification of charged particles with forward polar angles below 5°–10° and momenta from 3 to 15 GeV/c. PANDA FRICH will have a multilayer focusing aerogel radiator to achieve the required resolution on Cherenkov angle. A set of precisely aligned flat mirrors will collect light on the multi-anode photomultipliers which are located outside of the detector’s effective aperture. A baseline design of the PANDA Forward RICH is presented including results of the full Monte-Carlo simulation, optical measurements and prototype beam tests.

The report gives an extensive overview of the scientific and technical progress in 2018 and also summarizes the near and long term goals and the competition for the full experiment.