A big win for Raytheon, and a capability improvement for legacy Hornets:
The Waltham, Mass.-based company said the contract calls for APG-79 radars to be installed to replace current equipment. The new radars have active electronic beam scanning, which allows the radar beam to be steered at nearly the speed of light. It enables the pilot and crew improved image resolution and better target and tracking capability, the company said.
The Waltham, Mass.-based company said the contract calls for APG-79 radars to be installed to replace current equipment. The new radars have active electronic beam scanning, which allows the radar beam to be steered at nearly the speed of light. It enables the pilot and crew improved image resolution and better target and tracking capability, the company said.
AESA is a great system; powerful, nimble, EA resistant and orders of magnitude more reliable (and thus, sustainable). With APG-65 radar LRUs going end-of-life, this probably was a no-brainer.
Which, in today’s acquistion environment, makes this decision all the more surprising.
Lex, the AP piece in the Forbes spot is a redacted version of the official release from Raytheon and so loses true context.
” EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Raytheon Company has been awarded a $54 million U.S. Navy contract to retrofit Super Hornet Block II aircraft with APG-79 active electronically scanned array radars.
The award by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., calls for APG-79 AESA radars to be retrofitted into lots 26 to 29 of the F/A-18E/F aircraft. The units will replace the APG-73 radars currently installed in the aircraft, ensuring that pilots and aircrews are equipped with the most advanced technology available.”
Your point about -65 components at end of life remains valid. If I have it right, AESA wasn’t quite ready for primetime as Supers rolled off the line so -73 systems went in. Now that all’s well, retrofit to the desired capability gets a green light (thankfully it worked out this way, what with the fickle flow of resources). It also frees up -73 parts for those legacy TMS flying those systems. Some of those components are common with -65. Win-Win.
Lex, not much love in here for the “Dart” seeing only a single comment here after a whole day. Adding, I also saw two other contract awards to upgrade the Legacy Hornet: Boeing was awarded a 48.9 million dollar contract to develop and test a Distributed Targeting (DT) system for the F/A-18E/F. “part of its Network-Centric Warfare Upgrades program. The technology insertion program is geared to help Block II Super Hornets stay current through at least 2025.” (Source Av Week and Space Tech/May 25th 2009) ALSO: Lockheed/Martin awarded a technology development contract for F/A-18E/F ISRT program. “Lockheed Martin was awarded a $4 million contract by the Boeing Company for the technology development phase of the F/A-18E/F Infrared Search and Track (IRST) program.
The technology development contract follows a two-year pre-system design and development program in which Lockheed Martin was down-selected as the sole source provider.”
Lots of new toys going into that ole Girl of Yours, staying relevant is important and simply dropping iron on bad guys is not enough these days.
BT: Jimmy T sends.
Almost missed it.
It’s a good spiral “capability” install for SuperHornets but the $$ would have been better spent, tactically, building bigger/lighter external fuel tanks. For “THE” mission of course.
b2
It’s a good spiral “capability” install for SuperHornets but the $$ would have been better spent, tactically, building bigger/lighter external fuel tanks. For “THE” mission of course.
Aerial refueling?