Air Surveillance Radar Successfully Tracks First Targets at Wallops Island

SPY-6(V)2, Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR), recently completed its first system-level tests. The Raytheon Co.

WALLOPS
ISLAND TEST FACILITY, Va. — Raytheon Co. and the U.S. Navy completed the first
system-level tests of SPY-6(V)2, the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR),
at the Surface Combat System Center at Wallops Island, Virginia, Raytheon said
in a statement.

In the
first test the radar searched for, detected, identified and tracked numerous
targets — including commercial aircraft. In a second exercise, the maturity of
EASR integration enabled the radar to track multiple targets continuously for
several hours during a test involving another system.

EASR, the
newest sensor in the Navy’s SPY-6 family of radars, provides simultaneous
anti-air and anti-surface warfare, electronic protection and air traffic
control for aircraft carriers and amphibious warfare ships.

“Moving
quickly from radar installation at Wallops Island to ‘tracks on glass’ in less
than three months is a major accomplishment,” said Navy Capt. Jason Hall, program
manager for above water sensors, Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare
Systems. “The EASR program is progressing extremely well. We are now one step
closer to production and delivering the radar’s unmatched capability to the
surface fleet.”

Two
variants of EASR are being built: a single-face rotating array designated
AN/SPY-6(V)2 for amphibious assault ships and Nimitz-class carriers and a three
fixed-face array designated AN/SPY-6(V)3 for Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft
carriers and the future FFG(X) guided missile frigates.

Both versions of EASR are built on scalable Radar Modular Assembly, or RMA, technology as well as a software baseline that has been matured through development and test successes of AN/SPY-6(V)1, the Navy’s program of record for the DDG 51 Flight III destroyers. These individual radars can integrate to form arrays of various sizes to address any mission on any ship. EASR also adds air traffic control and weather capabilities to the mature SPY-6 software baseline.

Upon completion of system-level testing in the fourth quarter of 2019, EASR will shift from the engineering and manufacturing development phase to the production phase. The first delivery of AN/SPY-6(V)2 will be to LHA 8, the third America-class amphibious assault ship.