GDC4S awarded US Army radar development contract

General Dynamics C4 Systems will develop a new High/Medium Power Close-in Radar system for the US Army’s Range Radar Replacement Program (RRRP) under a new contract modification announced on 2 May. The $16 million modification will fund the engineering, development and initial manufacture of the new radar system.

The RRRP will see a number of aging and outdated radar system fleets currently operating at US Army test ranges replaced with newer, more advanced systems. The General Dynamics-led team was awarded the contract to develop and deploy modernised range instrumentation radars for the programme in July 2012. The programme has a total potential value of $385 million over ten years if all options are exercised.

This latest contract modification will see General Dynamics develop a mobile Close-in radar system that will provide unprecedented fidelity when tracking munitions and other targets at a range of 37 miles or more.

The Close-in radar system joins the Fly-out radar system, which was the first range instrumentation radar system ordered using the RRRP contract. The Close-in radar system will acquire information about the launch and early stages of flight for munitions and other low-flying objects. The Fly-out radar system, which has just completed the requirements phase of development, is capable of tracking up to 40 test objects over a range of 60 miles. The new mobile radar systems eliminate the cost and downtime associated with maintaining and moving decades-old, antiquated radar systems that are currently in place at army test ranges.

Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems, said: ‘The Close-in radar system is the second in a new generation of range instrumentation radars that deliver cost-effective, digital technologies and systems needed to meet the army's goal of modernizing test ranges in Alabama, Arizona, New Mexico and Maryland.’

The General Dynamics RRRP solution leverages XSTAR family of instrumentation radar developed by STAR Dynamics.