Northrop to add GWLR mode to G/ATOR

The US Marine Corps has awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman to develop and test the Ground Weapon Locating Radar (GWLR) mode for the AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR), the company announced on 12 October.

The contract is valued at around $59 million. 

The GWLR mode is a software update, which brings additional mission capability to the Department of Defense’s ground-based multi-mission Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. The software enables the same radar hardware to operate in four different modes, switching between air surveillance, air defense, ground weapon locating, and air traffic control as required by the operator.

G/ATOR will be able to detect and track time-critical incoming threats such as rockets, mortars and artillery rounds using GWLR mode. Once the incoming threats are detected by the radar, the system rapidly analyses their ballistic trajectories and computes their impact points to enable rapid and accurate threat engagement by counterfire forces.

Roshan Roeder, director, ground based tactical radars, land and self-protection systems division, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, said: ‘Inserting this capability into G/ATOR is an important step toward providing the marines with a highly capable and highly versatile system.

'Using an open architecture approach, we're bringing together the best of technology and design experience from ground and airborne applications to create a system that seamlessly facilitates capability upgrades and the insertion of emerging technologies.’