Raytheon recently demonstrated the integrated air and missile defense capability of its AN/SPY-6(V) radar against multiple targets. The radar detected, acquired and tracked multiple targets from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. Capitalizing on two unrelated exercises conducted nearby in mid-September, SPY-6(V) not only tracked multiple threats simultaneously but also a ballistic missile – through intercept, for the first time.
The SPY-6(V) program has met all milestones, ahead of or on schedule, since its inception in January 2014. The radar has amassed a track record of performance, demonstrating its multi-mission capabilities against an array of single and multiple, simultaneous targets throughout the Navy's extensive testing program and against various targets of opportunity. Now in production at Raytheon's advanced Radar Development Facility, AN/SPY-6(V) remains on schedule for delivery to the first DDG 51 Flight III, the future USS Jack H Lucas (DDG 125), in 2019.
The AN/SPY-6(V) provides greater range, increased accuracy, greater resistance to environmental and man-made electronic clutter, higher reliability and sustainability than currently deployed radars. The radar's demonstrated sensitivity provides greater coverage for early and accurate detection which optimizes the effectiveness of the Navy's most advanced weapons, including all variants of Standard Missile-3 and Standard Missile-6.
The inherent scalability of the radar – based on 2'x2'x2' Radar Modular Assemblies, individual radar "building blocks" - allows for new instantiations without significant new radar development costs. Scaled variants of AN/SPY-6(V) already designated as U.S. Navy programs of record, include the back-fit radar for existing DDG 51 Flight IIA destroyers, the new and back-fit radars for aircraft carriers and amphibious ships, as well as the radar for the new guided-missile frigate, FFG(X).
