Saab to build modern shipboard air traffic control radar systems for aircraft carriers and big-deck amphibs
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – U.S. Navy shipboard surveillance experts are ordering three AN/SPN-50(V) 1 shipboard air traffic radar systems from Saab Inc. in East Syracuse, N.Y., to replace the Navy’s AN/SPN-43C radar aboard aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $31.7 million order to Saab last week as part of the AN/SPN-50(V) 1 radar low-rate initial production (LRIP). The first AN/SPN-50(V)1 is scheduled for delivery next September.
The AN/SPN-50(V) 1 radar enables shipboard air traffic controllers to identify, marshal, and direct aircraft within a 50-nautical-mile radius of the ship.
In recent years, the top 25 percent of the AN/SPN-43C frequency band has been reallocated to the fixed wireless access community prohibiting air traffic control and air search radar operation within 50 nautical miles of the coast, Navy officials say.
The AN/SPN-50(V)1 radar is one of the U.S. versions of Saab’s Sea Giraffe agile multi beam radar, functions as the primary air traffic control surveillance radar for manned and unmanned aviation aboard the Navy’s nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and large-deck amphibious assault ships.
On this contract Saab will do the work in Syracuse, N.Y., and should be finished by December 2022. For more information contact Saab Inc. online at www.saab.com, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
