KAUAI, Hawaii - The U.S. Navy installed a new AN/SPY-6
radar at the Advanced Radar Development Evaluation Laboratory (ARDEL) at the
Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) June 6.
The delivery and installation of the AN/SPY-6 radar at
ARDEL followed the successful completion of Near Field Range testing in
Sudbury, Massachusetts in late May and marks the beginning of the Air and
Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) program's next phase of execution that includes
live test campaigns at PMRF involving air and surface targets as well as Integrated
Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) flight tests.
"Completion of Near Field Range testing and
installation at ARDEL is a huge milestone for our AMDR team," said Capt.
Seiko Okano. "Delivery of the radar
13 months after System Critical Design Review is a testament to the maturity of
the design and a reflection of the team's hard work. The Navy needs this
capability today, and this keeps us on track to delivering this critical
capability to the Fleet."
Preparations for the next phase of testing are underway,
and near term efforts will focus on integration and checkout to support initial
light off in early July.
AN/SPY-6 is a single-face, new development Integrated Air
and Missile Defense (IAMD) radar, providing sensitivity for long range
detection and engagement of advanced threats. The Navy competitively awarded
the Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract to Raytheon in October
2013.
The AN/SPY-6 uses active electronically scanned array
technologies with solid state transmit and receive amplifiers placed behind
each antenna element, which replace the waveguide tube amplifiers of legacy DDG
51 Class AN/SPY-1D(V) arrays. The
digital architecture provides multi-beam capabilities to reduce Anti-Aircraft
Warfare surveillance frame times while also improving radar performance in both
harsh natural and manmade environments. AN/SPY-6 will provide the U.S. Navy
with next generation IAMD capabilities and is currently planned for deployment
on the DDG 51 Flight III destroyers and interfaced with the AEGIS Advanced
Capability Build (ACB 20) combat system.
PEO IWS is an affiliated Program Executive Office of the Naval
Sea Systems Command. IWS is responsible for spearheading surface ship and
submarine combat technologies and systems, and for implementing Navy enterprise
solutions across ship platforms.