Precision sensors like the Raytheon SPY-6 radar can help defend U.S. Navy warships from anti-ship missiles
WASHINGTON – Descending from high altitudes at lethal speeds guided by precision sensors, technically improved enemy ballistic missiles increasingly can hold large surface warships and even groups of vessels at risk. Kris Osborn at The National Interest reports. Continue reading original article
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
15 April 2021 -- Many of these threats, to include long-range anti-ship missiles, can travel hundreds of miles to their targets, moving beyond the horizon toward surface ships challenged to detect the approaching weapon with line-of-sight radar systems.
Recognizing the seriousness of these threats, which are increasing quickly, the Navy is working with industry partners like Raytheon to integrate a family of new radar systems across a wide swath of its surface fleet. The goal is not only to arm surface ships with a new generation of sensitive discriminating radar, but also to network these radar systems together.
This way one ship's radar can detect targets from beyond the horizon and share the information with vulnerable ships miles away to give ship commanders time to choose the best response. These new radars are called the SPY-6 -- the most powerful of which is being designed into the Navy’s USS Jack Lucas (DDG 125), a Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics
