Lockheed Martin to continue project to upgrade AN/FPS-117 long-range surveillance radars

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah, 16 Dec. 2012. Radar experts at the Lockheed Martin Corp. Mission Systems & Sensors segment in Syracuse, N.Y., will upgrade U.S. Air Force AN/FPS-117 long-range radars in Alaska and Canada under terms of a $16.4 million contract modification announced Friday.

Lockheed Martin will do the work as part of the AN/FPS-117 surveillance radar essential parts replacement program. Awarding the contract were officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

The AN/FPS-117 Radar System is a 3-D (azimuth-range-height) phased array antenna radar that is minimally attended or unattended. The system is a low power radar with a range of 200 to 250 nautical miles, and operates with an L-band pencil beam, solid-state transmitter, and deacon interrogator.

The AN/FPS-117 radar design includes a redundant architecture with computer software remote controlled and monitored operations to minimize manning requirements.

The AN/FPS-117 and its companion AN/FPS-124 form a line of radars stretching across North America from Alaska via Canada to Greenland that functions as the North Warning System, which provide long-range detection and coverage for drug interdiction support and tactical command and control. The AN/FPS-117 is part of the Air Force SEEK IGLOO system, which began full operational capability in 1983.

The contract calls for Lockheed Martin to provide components as part of the AN/FPS-117 Essential Parts Replacement Program (EPRP), which will replace ageing electronics in the radar systems with modern technology in an effort to eliminate obsolescence and diminishing manufacturing issues. AN/FPS-117 sites are in remote regions of Alaska and Canada and are either minimally attended or unattended.

The AN/FPS-117 EPRP program will replace electronic assemblies in the radar system's tower equipment room, antenna platform electronics cabinet, IFF beacon electronics, and maintenance control system centers.

In the tower equipment room, Lockheed Martin experts will replace the preprocessor, moving target indicator processor, power supplies, Doppler processor, and radar data processor.

In the antenna platform electronics cabinet, technicians will replace the frequency generator/exciter, logic bucket, radio frequency circuit boards, wiring, cabling, connectors, power supplies, and voltage regulators.

In the IFF beacon electronics Lockheed Martin will replace all radar system interconnect cables, Digital Equipment Corp. Alpha workstations and printers, networking and communications hardware, and the tower equipment room environmental-control system.

At AN/FPS-117 maintenance control system centers, Lockheed Martin will replace all system workstations, servers, printers, and networking-communications hardware.

The entire AN/FPS-117 radar upgrade project should be finished by 2016. For more information contact Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors online at www.lockheedmartin.com/us/ms2, or the Air Force Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at www.wpafb.af.mil/aflcmc.