Navy taps RTX Raytheon for AN/SPY-6(V) missile-defense radar for Burke-class destroyer surface warships
WASHINGTON – Shipboard radar experts at RTX Corp. will build and integrate the new AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) for late-model Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) Aegis destroyer surface warships under terms of a $536.8 million U.S. Navy contract announced Friday.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking the RTX Raytheon segment in Marlborough, Mass., for AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR integration and production support.
The Raytheon AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR will improve the Burke-class destroyer's ability to detect hostile aircraft, surface ships, and ballistic missiles, Raytheon officials say. The AMDR will supersede the AN/SPY-1 radar, which has been standard equipment on Navy Aegis Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers.
The new shipboard missile-defense radar will go aboard Flight III Burke-class destroyers. Thus far four Flight III Burke-class destroyers have been launched: the USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125); USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128); USS Patrick Gallagher (DDG-127); and USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG-129).
The keel has been laid for Flight III Burke-class destroyers USS Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126); USS Jeremiah Denton (DDG-129); USS George M. Neal (DDG-131; USS William Charette (DDG-130); USS George M. Neal (DDG-131); and USS Sam Nunn (DDG-133). In total, 24 Flight III Burke-class destroyers are planned.
Flight III Burke-class destroyers will be built at Huntington Ingalls Inc. in Pascagoula, Miss., and at the General Dynamics Corp. Bath Iron Works segment in Bath, Me. Flight III is the latest version of the Burke-class guided missile destroyer.
The AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR will provide greater detection ranges, increased discrimination accuracy, higher reliability and sustainability, and lower costs, compared to the AN/SPY-1D(V) radar onboard today’s Burke-class destroyers.
The system is built with individual building blocks called radar modular assemblies (RMAs), Raytheon officials say. Each RMA is a self-contained radar in a two-cubic-foot box; RMAs can stack together to form any size array to fit ship mission requirements.
AMDR scalability
The inherent scalability of the AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR also could enable new instantiations, such as backfits on existing Burke-class destroyers and installation on aircraft carriers, amphibious warfare ships, frigates, the littoral combat ship, and Zumwalt-class land-attack destroyers without significant new radar development costs, Raytheon officials say.
For the Flight III Burke-class destroyer's SPY-6(V) AMDR will feature 37 RMAs. The new radar will be able to see targets half the size at twice the distance of today’s SPY-1 radar. The AMDR will have four array faces to provide full-time, 360-degree situational awareness. Each 14-by-14-foot face is about the same size as today’s SPY-1D(V) radar.
The AN/SPY-6(V) AMDR will 30 times more sensitive than the AN/SPY-1D(V) in the Flight III configuration, and is being designed to counter large and complex raids, Raytheon officials say. The new radar will have adaptive digital beamforming and radar signal processing for dealing with high-clutter and RF jamming environments.
The AN/SPY-6(V) radar also is reprogrammable to adapt to new missions or emerging threats. It uses high-powered gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors, distributed receiver exciters, adaptive digital beamforming, and Intel processors for digital signal processing.
S- and X-band radars
The new radar will feature S-band radar coupled with X-band horizon-search radar, and a radar suite controller (RSC) to manage radar resources and integrate with the ship’s combat management system.
On this order Raytheon will do the work in Marlborough, Mass.; Pascagoula, Miss.; Moorestown, N.J.; Newport News, wallops Island, and Chesapeake, Va.; Kauai, Hawaii; Bath, Me.; Portsmouth, R.I.; and San Diego, and is should be finished by May 2026. With options, work could continue through May 2030.
For more information contact RTX Raytheon online at www.rtx.com/raytheon/what-we-do/sea/spy6-radars, 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.
