Following a successful ballistic missile defense test of the U.S. Navy’s next-generation Air and Missile Defense Radar in March this year, the Navy now awarded Raytheon a contract for the construction of the first three units.
Under a $327.1 million contract, Raytheon is to build three low-rate initial production units to be fitted on the DDG 51 Flight III destroyers.
Designated as AN/SPY-6(V), the AMDR provides greater detection ranges, increased discrimination accuracy, higher reliability and sustainability compared to the current AN/SPY-1D(V) radar onboard today’s destroyers, according to Raytheon.
The system is built with individual ‘building blocks’ called Radar Modular Assemblies. Each RMA is a self-contained radar in a 2’x2’x2’ box. These individual radar RMAs can stack together to form any size array to fit the mission requirements of any ship.
Raytheon says the inherent scalability could allow for new instantiations, such as back-fit on existing DDG 51 destroyers and installation on aircraft carriers, amphibious warfare ships, frigates, Littoral Combat Ship and DDG 1000 classes, without significant new radar development costs.
Work on the first three units will be performed in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by October 2020.