NEWTOWN: In June 2009, the U.S. Navy announced the award of three separate contracts worth a total of $30 million to conduct concept studies to support the development of a new radar to equip CG(X) and Future Surface Combatant platforms.
The three companies that received contracts are Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. On July 28, 2009, Northrop Grumman released some additional details about the contract. The firm-fixed-price awarded to Northrop Grumman is worth $10 million.
According to Steve McCoy, vice president of the Advanced Concepts business unit for Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems Sector, Northrop Grumman will leverage its experience with active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology developed for airborne and surface based platforms to develop the AMDR.
The company will also utilize recent advancements demonstrated on a large S-Band aperture and the Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) program. The radar will be modular and utilize an open architecture approach so that the radar can scale to multiple ship classes.
AMDR is envisioned by the Navy as a multi-mission radar suite containing a S-band radar, a X-band radar and Radar Suite Controller (RSC) and will be designed to be scalable to accommodate current and future mission requirements for multiple platforms.
The AMDR-S will provide volume search, tracking, Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) discrimination and missile communications. The AMDR-X will provide horizon search, precision tracing, missile communication and terminal illumination.
