QUANTICO, Va., 19 Sept. 2005. U.S. Marine Corps leaders are hiring Northrop Grumman Corp. to build a new battlefield radar system called the Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar system, otherwise known as G/ATOR.
This mobile system is to handle tasks such as short-range air defense, tactical air operations, identification friend or foe (IFF), counter-battery fire, target acquisition, target recognition, sensor networking, and air traffic control.
Developing the first increment of G/ATOR are engineers at the Northrop Grumman Electronic Sensors Systems division in Linthicum Heights, Md. G/ATOR will be developed in four increments.
Northrop Grumman is doing work on the first increment of G/ATOR under terms of a $7.9 million contract awarded Sept. 16 from the Marine Corps Systems Command at Quantico Marine Base, Va. The contract number is M67854-05-C-2000.
In the program's first increment, Northrop Grumman will build G/ATOR for short-range air defense (SHORAD) and tactical air operations Center (TAOC) air surveillance missions, including IFF.
The increment I design will provide for growth to all following increments without equipment re-design and will provide an open architecture that allows for the computers, computer programs, and firmware to be upgraded with the functionality of all following Increments.
Increment II will develop and produce systems based on the increment I baseline for ground counter-battery and target acquisition.
Increment III will incorporate Mode 5/S IFF, electronic protection equipment and software, non-cooperative target recognition, sensor netting, an advanced radar environmental simulator, and a logistics integrated data environment (IDE). Increment IV, meanwhile, will incorporate an air traffic control (ATC) capability.
Northrop Grumman will do the work in Linthicum Heights, Md. and Syracuse, N.Y., and should be finished in September 2009.
