RTX Raytheon to build new AN/SPY-6(V) air-defense shipboard radar for late-model Burke-class destroyers

Questions and answers:

• What is the purpose of the AN/SPY-6(V) radar for Burke-class destroyers? It improves the ship's ability to detect hostile aircraft, surface ships, and ballistic missiles, and will replace the older AN/SPY-1 radar for better detection ranges, accuracy, and reliability.
• Why is the AN/SPY-6(V) radar better than previous versions? It is 30 times more sensitive than the previous SPY-1D(V) system, providing better detection at greater distances and the ability to handle larger and more complex missile raids. It also includes adaptive digital beamforming and is reprogrammable for new missions or emerging threats.
• What are the advantages of the radar's modular design? It has radar modular assemblies (RMAs) for flexibility in building radar arrays tailored to specific missions. These RMAs can be stacked together, making the system adaptable to different ships.

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 $53 million U.S. Navy order announced in August.

Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking the RTX Raytheon segment in Marlborough, Mass., for hardware production of the AN/SPY-6(V) family of radars.

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 air-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); Ted Stevens (DDG 128); Patrick Gallagher (DDG-127); and Jeremiah Denton (DDG-129).

Flight III under construction

The Flight III Burke-class destroyers under construction are the USS Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG 126); William Charette (DDG-130); George M. Neal (DDG-131); Quentin Walsh (DDG-132); Sam Nunn (DDG-133); John E. Kilmer )DDG-134); Thad Cochran (DDG-135); and Richard G. Lugar (DDG-136).

Flight III Burke-class destroyers are 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.

Tell me more about why Burke-class destroyers need advanced radar ...

• Arleigh Burke-class destroyers need advanced radar systems because they must operate effectively in modern high-threat environments that require defenses against ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, enemy aircraft, and uncrewed aircraft. The ship's radars are phased-array systems that can track hundreds of targets simultaneously; are accurate at long ranges; and can discriminate threats in cluttered environments. Burke destroyer radars help the ship coordinate with other naval units; navigating safely in high-traffic areas; and avoid surprise attacks from aircraft, missiles, and enemy surface warships. These radars share data with other ships, aircraft, and command centers; and enable one ship to fire based on another ship’s radar data.

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 radar

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 Andover, Mass.; San Diego, Cerritos, and Riverside, Calif.; Sykesville, Md.; Scottsdale, Ariz.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Stafford Springs, Conn.; Tulsa, Okla.; Indianapolis; Portsmouth, R.I., and other locations, and should be finished by September 2029.

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.