Northrop Grumman [NOC] and the U.S. Marine Corps successfully completed the initial integration event (IIE) for the AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) system in Nov. 2016, the company said Thursday.
The IIE demonstrated the G/ATOR’s ground weapon locating radar (GWLR) mode’s ability to detect and track multiple types of rocket, artillery, mortar (RAM) rounds simultaneously, Northrop Grumman said. The live fire event evaluated over 40 different weapon scenarios and over 700 live shots, including a variety of RAM rounds.
The AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR system is the Marine Corps’ next generation air surveillance, air defense, and air traffic control radar being developed by Northrop Grumman. It performs four primary missions, all with the same hardware: short-range air defense, tactical air operations control, counterfire target acquisition (GWLR mode), and future air traffic controls.
The GWLR mode adds software to the G/ATOR system to detect, track, and identify RAM projectiles in 360-degrees and sector-only settings.
The company said the system proved its long range capacity when the GWLR successfully tracked projectiles including volley fire between 3.7 and 31 miles. Volley fire capability is the ability to detect and track multiple RAM projectiles fired in a rapid sequence as part of an attempt to overwhelm radar capabilities.
“GWLR mode detects and tracks time-critical incoming threats, calculates an approximate impact point, and then tracks the threat’s trajectory back in time to estimate a firing position, allowing counterfire forces to engage rapidly. The volley fire capability that G/ATOR demonstrated is critical on the modern battlefield, and all of the data collected during IIE indicates that GWLR can exceed the U.S. Marine Corps’ range capability,” Roshan Roeder, vice president of mission solutions at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement.