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.’
Related Equipment in Defence Insight
More from Land Warfare
-
Thales to modernise Netherlands TACTIS combined arms trainer
Thales will modernise the Royal Netherlands Army’s TACTIS simulation system over eight years with enhanced synthetic environments, new simulators for the CV9035NL, Boxer and Leopard 2 tanks.
-
Hanwha contracted to develop radar for South Korean missile defence
Hanwha will develop the multi-function radar of the Low Altitude Missile Defense (LAMD), work which is scheduled to be completed before the end of 2028.
-
Anduril Industries unveils improved electromagnetic warfare system
Pulsar-L has already entered service and weighs about 12kg with range of 5km. It was only in May last year that the company disclosed that earlier versions were already in service.
-
Romania approved for additional $280 million Patriot Air Defence System buy
The possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) from the US will cover the system and any related equipment with Lockheed Martin and RTX as primary contractors.
-
Polaris to unveil new MRZR Alpha base vehicle at Modern Day Marine
The new platform was designed to provide 1KW of exportable power as standard and has been developed in partnership with the US Marine Corps (USMC).
-
British Army details Ajax plans
Of the six variants in the Ajax programme – reconnaissance (Ajax), reconnaissance support (Ares), C2 (Athena), equipment repair (Apollo), equipment recovery (Atlas) and engineering reconnaissance (Argus) – the Ajax reconnaissance version is now entering service.