US Navy installs AN/SPY-6 radar at ARDEL

An AN/SPY-6 radar has been installed at the US Navy's Advanced Radar Development Evaluation Laboratory (ARDEL) at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF), it was announced on 24 June.

The delivery and installation of the AN/SPY-6 radar follows the completion of near field range testing in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

With the installation complete the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) programme's next phase of execution will begin. This phase includes live test campaigns at PMRF involving air and surface targets as well as Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) flight tests.

Preparations are underway for the next testing phase, with the near term efforts aimed at integration and checkout for the initial light-off, expected in early July 2016.

The AN/SPY-6, developed and manufactured by Raytheon, is an active electronically scanned array IAMD radar with solid state transmit and receive amplifiers behind each antenna element, replacing the waveguide tube amplifiers used in legacy DDG-51 Class AN/SPY-1D(V) arrays.

The radar has a digital architecture with multi-beam capabilities for reducing anti-aircraft warfare surveillance frame times and improving harsh weather performance. It is to be deployed on DDG-51 Flight III destroyers and interfaced with the Aegis Advanced Capability Build (ACB 20) combat system.

Capt Seiko Okano, said: ‘Completion of near field range testing and installation at ARDEL is a huge milestone for our AMDR team. Delivery of the radar, 13 months after system Critical Design Review, is a testament to the maturity of the design and a reflection of the team's hard work. The navy needs this capability today, and this keeps us on track to delivering this critical capability to the fleet.’