US Air Force awards Northrop Grumman ANG F-16
radar upgrade contract
Pat Host, Washington, DC - IHS Jane's Defence
Weekly
09 June 2017
Key Points
- US
Air Force awards Northrop Grumman to upgrade ANG F-16 radars
- Could
be precursor for future active USAF F-16 radar upgrades
The US Air Force (USAF) on 31 May awarded
Northrop Grumman a USD244 million contract to upgrade Air National Guard (ANG)
F-16s with new radars.
The contract is predominantly fixed-price
with cost-plus-fixed-fee and fixed-price incentive portions, according to a
Pentagon statement. Northrop Grumman will provide 72 of its active electronically
scanned array (AESA) APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radars (SABR) as well as spares
and support services. Work is expected to complete by 31 January 2019.
The contract award was the result of a
competitive acquisition with one offer received. Raytheon has its own AESA
fighter aircraft radar called Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar (RACR) that has an
international customer in South Korea, but it did not bid for the USAF ANG
contract. Company spokesperson Michael Doble told Jane's on 8 June after evaluating
the ANG's acquisition strategy, Raytheon determined it was not in its best
interest to submit a bid.
Northrop Grumman said the greater bandwidth,
speed, and agility of its APG-83 SABR enables the F-16 to detect, track, and
identify greater numbers of targets faster and at longer ranges. In addition,
the company said its SABR can operate in hostile electronic environments and
features all-weather, high-resolution synthetic aperture radar mapping, which
presents the pilot with a large surface image enabling precision target
identification and strike.
The SABR is the base radar for Lockheed
Martin's F-16 Block 70. The company began delivering production of APG-83 SABR
for its first international customer on schedule at the end of 2016. Northrop
Grumman spokesperson Scott Cahoon on 8 June declined to reveal the
international customer.
Original post: janes.com
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