Digital Battlespace

AESA radar upgrade begins for ANG F-16s

16th October 2020 - 09:00 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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AN/APG-83 is a programme of record for the USAF as well as the ANG

The USAF has declared FOC for the its scalable agile beam radar (SABR) AESA radar on Air National Guard (ANG) F-16s.

This is to meet a US Northern Command Joint Emergent Operational Need for homeland defence, manufacturer Northrop Grumman noted in a 15 October statement.

The radar will operate with the official designation AN/APG-83.

Installations began in September, to extend the operational viability and reliability of the ANG F-16 fleet.

AN/APG-83 is a programme of record for active-duty and reserve USAF units as well as the ANG. The system features all-weather, high-resolution synthetic aperture radar mapping, to present the pilot with a large surface image for more precise target identification and strike compared to legacy systems.

The radar shares manufacturing processes, hardware and advanced operating modes with AESA sensors installed on F-22 and F-35 aircraft.

By providing pilots with fifth-generation fighter radar capabilities to defend US airspace, the upgrade ‘will keep the multirole F-16 fighter relevant and capable for decades to come’, claimed Mark Rossi, director of SABR programmes at Northrop Grumman.

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