PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 5 April 2009. U.S. Navy officials are awarding radar technology firm Raytheon Co. a $54.5 million contract to provide airborne radar systems for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jet fighter under terms of a contract announced Thursday.

The contract, from Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., is to provide 19 AN/APG-79 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar systems for Super Hornet fighter bombers lots 26 to 29.

The AESA radar can interleave surveillance radar and ground-attack radar capabilities to enable Super Hornet aircrews to use these different radar systems simultaneously to enhance the aircraft's lethality and reduce its vulnerability.

The AESA fighter jet radar enables the radar beam to be steered for situational awareness and air-to-air and air-to-ground capability. IT uses an open architecture and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) parts. Its array is composed of solid-state transmit and receive modules.

Work on the contract will be at Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems segment in El Segundo, Calif., and should be finished by 2010. For more information contact Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems online at www.raytheon.com.