Navy picks WR Systems to support long-range Relocatable Over-The-Horizon Radar (ROTHR) for surveillance
PHILADELPHIA – Long-range radar experts at WR Systems Ltd. in Fairfax, Va., will support a U.S. Navy surveillance system designed to detect and track aircraft and surface ships all over the Caribbean from the Florida Coast to South America.
Officials of the Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center, Norfolk, Contracting Department, Philadelphia Office in Philadelphia announced a five-year $34.5 million contract Thursday to WR Systems for program support services of the Relocatable Over-The-Horizon Radar (ROTHR) at the Forces Surveillance Support Center in Chesapeake, Va.
The ROTHR over-the-horizon radar uses high-frequency radar waves that bounce off a layer of the atmosphere called the ionosphere to provide long-range over-the-horizon radar coverage. It achieves long ranges just like shortwave radio.
ROTHR uses high-frequency (HF) radio waves, which are particularly susceptible to interference from lightning almost anywhere in the world. HF signal reception also changes throughout the course of the day and the seasons, as well as at night, so ROTHR poses a particularly difficult digital signal processing (DSP) problem.
ROTHR is designed to provide early warning of strikes against aircraft carrier task forces, and is suited especially for long-range surveillance of large open-water areas out to ranges as far as 2,500 nautical miles.
The U.S. Navy operates two ROTHR systems, one in Chesapeake, Va., and the other in Corpus Christi, Texas. Together, these radar systems cover most of the Caribbean, and extend into the Pacific coat of Central America and South America as far south as the Galapagos Islands.
As their name implies, the ROTHR systems can be moved, and have been redeployed for detection and monitoring of air traffic in the U.S. government's war against drugs.
The ROTHR system has been operational with the U.S. government for more than 25 years, supporting the counter drug mission in the Caribbean and South America, and early warning detection for Navy vessels at sea.
ROTHR originally was developed to keep long-range watch for cruise missiles and other low-flying threats to the U.S. mainland well offshore. Eventually ROTHR took over monitoring drug smuggling in the Caribbean.
The radar provides more than 2.5 million square miles of coverage and detects more than 350,000 targets per year. It is currently the U.S. government's primary surveillance system for the counter-drug mission, Raytheon officials say.
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ROTHR designer Raytheon Technologies Corp. (RTX) has been upgrading the radars since the initial installations to improve performance and reliability. Performance improvements included state of the art computers and displays and enhanced software for more accurate tracking of small aircraft and boats.
On this contract WR Systems will do the work in Chesapeake, New Kent, and Arlington, Va.; Corpus Christi, Texas; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Adelaide, Australia; San Diego; Dayton, Ohio; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Washington; and Key West, Fla., and should be finished by March 2029.
For more information contact WR Systems online at https://wrsystems.com; RTX Raytheon at www.rtx.com/raytheon, or the Naval Supply Systems Command Fleet Logistics Center at www.navsup.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
