Navy asks Raytheon to continue providing parts for upgrades to counter-radar missiles in $67.3 million order
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – U.S. Navy electronic warfare (EW) experts are asking Raytheon Technologies Corp. to continue providing parts for upgrading the obsolescent AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile counter-radar weapon with improved precision.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $67.3 million order last month to the Raytheon Missiles & Defense segment in Tucson, Ariz., to continue to provide HARM guidance section and control section repairs and refurbishments for the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and U.S. allies.
HARM is designed to suppress or destroy surface-to-air missile radars, early warning radars, and radar-directed air defense artillery systems. Over the last decade Raytheon has provided HARM guidance upgrades that add a GPS receiver and an improved inertial measurement unit (IMU) for precision navigation.
The HARM control section has a digital flight computer that merges targeting solutions from navigation and seeker systems. The enhancements improve the probability of hit, while controlling where the missile can and cannot fly.
The upgrades improve HARM's anti-radar capability to defeat counter-HARM tactics, while reducing the risk of fratricide and collateral damage.
The Northrop Grumman Mission Systems segment in Northridge, Calif., is upgrading older HARM missiles to the AGM-88E Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) versions for the F/A-18 fighter bomber, EA-18G EW jet, F-16, and F-35 jet fighters.
AARGM is the newest version of the AGM-88 missile, and features an advanced digital anti-radiation homing sensor, millimeter wave radar terminal seeker, global positioning system/inertial navigation system (GPS/INS) guidance, net-centric connectivity, and weapon-impact-assessment transmit (WIA).
Related: Orbital ATK to upgrade 230 AARGM anti-radar missiles
The missile offers improved capabilities over the HARM systems it replaces, including advanced signal processing, improved frequency coverage, detection range, and field of view; time-critical, standoff strike; missile-impact zone control to prevent collateral damage; counter-emitter shutdown through active millimeter wave radar terminal guidance; and bomb damage assessment.
The AARGM features new software and enhanced capabilities to counter radar shutdown and passive radar using an additional active millimeter wave seeker. Previous versions of the missile could be spoofed by turning off radar before the weapon could lock on to their signals. The missile has been in full production since 2012.
On this order Raytheon will do the work in Tucson, Ariz., and should be finished by March 2024. For more information contact Raytheon Missiles & Defense online at www.raytheonmissilesanddefense.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.
