WASHINGTON – Shipboard radar designers at Lockheed Martin Corp. will build upgraded and high-performance radar arrays based on new low-noise amplifier technology for the SPY-1 radar aboard U.S. Navy surface warships.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington announced a $51.7 million order to the Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems segment in Moorestown, N.J., late last month to build four SPY-1 low-noise amplifier radar arrays.
Lockheed Martin is adding ballistic missile defense capability to the SPY-1 air search radar on Navy flight I and II Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
That upgrade involves adding a low-noise amplifier to each existing radar antenna in the SPY-1 system, and linking that equipment to the Aegis Baseline 5.4 integrated air and missile defense combat system software.
The low-noise amplifier is an important component in radar systems because it reduces RF noise and can improve the range and accuracy of the SPY-1 radar by enhancing the sensitivity of its radar receivers. Low-noise amplifiers also can reduce the size, weight, power consumption, and cost (SWaP-C) of the SPY-1 radar.
Applications like the Navy Lockheed Martin SPY-1 radar require large numbers of radar transmit-and-receive modules, and each of these radar modules needs a low-noise amplifiers.
On this order Lockheed Martin will do the work in Moorestown, N.J., and in Clearwater, Fla., and should be finished by March 2022. For more information contact Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems online at www.lockheedmartin.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
