Lockheed Martin has been awarded with a $104 million contract by the USAF to develop, produce and field a threat simulator for future combat aircrew training. The program, known as the Advanced Radar Threat System Variant 2 (ARTS-V2), will use radar threat emitters to simulate advanced medium-range surface-to-air missiles (SAM) to support legacy and 5th generation combat aircrew training requirements. The contract calls for the development and delivery of a Production Ready Assembly (PRA) article and options to produce up to 20 systems.
ARTS-V2 is a pre Milestone B Program to develop and field a high fidelity threat emitter for live aircrew training for anti-access/area denial environments. It will provide the advanced capabilities necessary to train aircrews in the employment of fifth generation aircraft against foreign fielded live double-digit surface-to-air missile threat systems. The required capabilities include the replication of system radio frequency signals and waveforms, advanced self-protection capabilities, mobility, physical characteristics and operational tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Lockheed’s ARTS-V2 is a robust, ruggedized, mobile system. It can provide threat accurate radar tracking and reactivity to include acquiring, tracking and engaging multiple aircraft simultaneously with representative receiver/processor and electronic counter-countermeasure capabilities. The system radar signal will meet threat representative parametric data of the actual threat. Additionally, the system will provide threat representative full effective radiated power, replicate threat signals, antenna patterns, operational modes and threat tactics capabilities, and the capability to send real-time radar data to the Range Control Center (RCC) in conjunction with the range's Digital Integrated Air Defense System (DIADS)-controlled threat environment for processing and analysis. ARTS-V2 will provide multi-spectral threat representation.
The work is scheduled to be completed by Jun 30, 2027 and will be performed at various locations across the U.S. The contract will use fiscal 2017 research, development, test, and evaluation funds.
