Lockheed Martin’s LRDR achieves technical milestone
Lockheed Martin’s Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) has completed a closed loop satellite track with tactical hardware and software, the company announced on 16 October.
The track was carried out as part of work to prepare for full-rate manufacturing starting in early 2019. Production hardware, tactical backend processing equipment and tactical software were used in the successful demonstration.
Lockheed Martin used its Solid State Radar Integration Site in Moorestown, New Jersey, for the test, which will now continue to be used for Solid State Radar (SSR) development.
The LRDR is being developed for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). The programme’s critical design review was completed in 2017, and from 2020 the radar will serve as a critical sensor within MDA’s layered defences to protect the US from ballistic missile attack. The radar will provide 24/7/365 acquisition, tracking and discrimination data to enable defence systems to lock on and engage ballistic missile threats.
LRDR adds the capability of discriminating threats at extended distances using the inherent wideband capability of the hardware coupled with advanced software algorithms. LRDR combines proven SSR technologies with proven ballistic missile defence algorithms, all based upon an open architecture platform capable of meeting future growth.
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