KAUAI, Hawaii (NNS) -- 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 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 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 DDG-51 Flight III destroyers and interfaced with the AEGIS Advanced Capability Build (ACB 20) combat system.
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