Raytheon takes-on support for expensive surface-search radar aboard surface warships in $160.2 million deal
WASHINGTON – Shipboard radar experts at Raytheon Technologies Corp. are pushing forward with support for an expensive surface-search radar system for large U.S. Navy warships until a suitable replacement comes online, under terms of a $160.2 million contract announced Wednesday.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking the Raytheon Missiles & Defense segment in Tewksbury, Mass., to support the Dual Band Radar (DBR) systems installed aboard Navy Ford-class aircraft carriers and Zumwalt-class destroyers. This contract includes options that could increase its value to $440.6 million.
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.
The S-band volume-search radar (VSR) 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 because the radar was considered too expensive and perhaps too much radar than the vessels 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).
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 contract Raytheon will do the work in Tewksbury, Marlborough, and Andover, Mass.; San Diego; Norfolk and Chesapeake, Va.; and Portsmouth, R.I., and should be finished by September 2023. The contract has options that could extend its duration to September 2027.
For more information contact Raytheon Missiles & Defense online at www.raytheonmissilesanddefense.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.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.
