By Geoff Fein
The Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT], Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Raytheon [RTN], $10 million each to perform concept studies for the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR).
AMDR “is a suite being developed to fulfill integrated air and missile defense requirements for next generation cruisers and destroyers,” according to the Navy’s budget documents.
AMDR is a Navy research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) effort.
AMDR will provide multi-mission capabilities, supporting both long range, exoatmospheric detection, tracking and discrimination of ballistic missiles, as well as area and self defense against air and surface threats, the documents said.
“For the Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) capability, increased radar sensitivity and bandwidth over the current SPY-1 system is needed to detect, track and support engagements of advanced ballistic missile threats at the required ranges,” according to the budget documents.
“For the Area Air Defense and Self Defense capability, increased sensitivity and clutter rejection capability is needed to detect, react to, and engage stressing Very Low Observable /Very Low Flyer (VLO/VLF) threats in the presence of heavy land, sea, and rain clutter. This effort and material provide for the development of an active phased array radar with the required capabilities to pace the evolving threat. Modularity of hardware and software, a designed in-growth path for technology insertion, and Open Architecture (OA) Compliance are required for performance and technology enhancements throughout service life,” the documents added.
In its fiscal year 2010 RDT&E budget justification documents, the Navy is seeking $190 million for AMDR, an increase of approximately $74 million from FY ’09.
“Additional funding was requested based on an updated program cost estimate developed to reflect the current system concept, radar sensitivity requirements, and acquisition strategy. The updated program cost estimate also identified additional required scope in the areas of software development, systems engineering and testing,” according to the budget documents.
According to a Lockheed Martin statement, AMDR “comprised of an S-Band radar, an X-Band radar and a Radar Suite Controller (RSC), is intended to significantly enhance a ship’s defensive capability against advanced anti-ship and ballistic missile threats.”
Under its contract, Lockheed Martin will focus on the S-Band radar and RSC during this six-month concept studies phase. The company will evaluate potential system configurations. Subsequent phases, including technology development, engineering and manufacturing development, production and follow-on support, will be the subject of future competitive procurements, the company noted.
“Northrop Grumman’s unique approach on AMDR results from applying our proven active electronic scanned array technology developed for airborne and surface based platforms, as well as recent advancements demonstrated on a large S-Band aperture and the Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar program,” Steve McCoy, vice president of the Advanced Concepts business unit for the company’s Electronic Systems sector said. “As a premier supplier of active radars for the U.S. Department of Defense, our modular, open architecture approach to the AMDR provides the ability to scale to multiple ship classes and protect our fleet for the next forty years.”