Northrop Grumman to supply airborne fire control radars for F-16 fighter jet upgrades
June 20, 2012
BALTIMORE, 20 June 2012. Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE:NOC), under an $87.8 million foreign military sales (FMS) contract, is delivering the APG-68(V)9airborne fire control radar to Thailand, Iraq, and Oman for use on F-16 fighter aircraft. Specifically, the company will provide 43 systems: six radar systems to the Royal Thai Air Force, 22 radar systems to the Iraqi air force, and 15 radar systems to the Royal Air Force of Oman.
The APG-68(V)9 is designed to enable engagement of air-to-air and air-to-surface threats with greater accuracy and at greater ranges than legacy F-16 fire control radars. The radar provides autonomous, all-environment, precision air-to-surface targeting with a high-resolution synthetic aperture radar ground mapping mode.
Deliveries are expected to be completed by March 2015. The FMS contract is managed by the Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
"Selection of the APG-68(V)9 Fire Control Radar by Thailand, Oman, and Iraq reaffirms its value and baseline position for all new F-16 production and F-16 avionics upgrades," says Tim Winter, Northrop Grumman's vice president for Global Systems Solutions. "The APG-68(V)9 radar's operational performance, affordable acquisition cost, low sustainment cost, and immediate availability has led 12 nations to procure almost 750 systems so far."
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