Raytheon continues support for shipboard DBR radar as service switches to the less-expensive EASR radar

WASHINGTON – Shipboard radar experts at Raytheon Technologies Corp. will continue supporting an expensive surface-search radar system for large U.S. Navy warships until a suitable replacement comes online, under terms of a $19.1 million order announced Friday.

Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking the Raytheon Missiles & Defense segment in Tewksbury, Mass., for design agent engineering efforts in support of the Dual Band Radar (DBR) program.

The Navy's DBR dual-band radar combines the benefits of S-band and X-band radar capabilities for a range of environments, while its open architecture software design enables automatic operation with minimal human intervention.

Related: Navy seeks to double funding for Advanced Above Water Sensors shipboard radar research

The S-band VSR radar arrays, built by Lockheed Martin, are integrated with Raytheon's SPY-3 X-band Multi-Function Radar to form the advanced DBR, which was tested in 2009 at the Navy's Engineering Test Center at Wallops Island, Va.

Initial installations of the DBR were aboard the Navy's Zumwalt-class land-attack destroyer and Ford-class aircraft carriers. By 2016 the DBR was discontinued after being installed only on the aircraft Carrier USS Gerald R. Ford because the DBR was considered too expensive and perhaps too much radar than the carrier needed.

By 2016 Navy officials decided to replace the DBR aboard aircraft carriers and other large surface warships with the more-economical Raytheon Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR).

Related: Raytheon to build new Navy EASR shipboard radar for aircraft carriers and other large ships

EASR will be installed on the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy -- the second ship of the Ford class -- to replace the discontinued DBR. The America-class amphibious assault USS Bougainville (LHA 8), under construction in Pascagoula, Miss., is expected to be the first ship that will take EASR to sea.

In the meantime, however, Navy officials still must maintain the few DBR systems that are operational, hence this order to Raytheon for engineering services.

On this order Raytheon will do the work in Tewksbury and Marlborough, Mass; Norfolk and Chesapeake, Va.; San Diego; and Portsmouth, R.I., and should be finished by June 2022. For more information contact Raytheon Missiles & Defense online at www.raytheonmissilesanddefense.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.