Army chooses Northrop Grumman to build and support AN/APR-39 radar warning receiver for helicopter avionics

Sept. 20, 2023
APR-39 provides the pilot and air crew with information on threat types, bearing, severity of the threat, and synthetic speech audio threat warnings.

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. – U.S. Army avionics experts are asking engineers at Northrop Grumman Corp. to build and support the AN/APR-39 family of radar warning receivers, new digital signal processing (DSP) capability.

Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., have announced an $18.1 million contract to the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems segment in Rolling Meadows, Ill., for the AN/APR-39 radar signal detecting set program.

The AN/APR-39 family of radar warning receivers is for a variety of Navy aircraft and ships. It detects radar threats to aircraft, such as radar ground sites and particularly radar-guided missiles, and provides 360-degree coverage around the aircraft. When the system detects radar threats, it alerts the aircraft crew to each threat with a graphic symbol on the cockpit display.

The AN/APR-39D(V)2 is the latest upgrade to the AN/APR-39 radar warning receiver that corrects deficiencies and enhances capability in the same weight and dimensions as the previous system. The upgrade calls for a new digital receiver for the AN/APR-39D(V)2.

Related: Army asks Lockheed Martin to build and sustain electronic warfare (EW) avionics for Apache helicopters

The APR-39 provides the pilot and air crew with information on threat types, bearing, and the severity of the threat. The system also gives the aircrew synthetic speech audio threat warnings.

The APR-39 also functions as an electronic warfare management system, and serves as the heart of Northrop Grumman's suite of integrated sensors and countermeasures that integrates and displays data from onboard sensors radio frequency and electro-optical sensors.

On this contract Northrop Grumman will do the work at locations to be determined with each order, and should be finished by August 2028. For more information contact Northrop Grumman Mission Systems online at www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/business-sectors/mission-systems, or the Army Contracting Command-Redstone at https://acc.army.mil/contractingcenters/acc-rsa/.

About the Author

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.

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