By Michael Sirak

Raytheon [RTN] beat out Northrop Grumman [NOC] last week in the competition to provide advanced modern radars for the Air Force’s fleet of 224 F-15E Strike Eagle multirole fighter aircraft before the end of next decade.

Boeing, the prime contractor for upgrading F-15Es, said on Nov. 1 it chose Raytheon after “a rigorous” evaluation of the bids from the offerors vying to supply the next- generation active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar systems under the F-15E Radar Modernization Program (RMP).

“Raytheon’s AESA radar is the best choice for the F-15E,” Mark Bass, Boeing’s F-15 vice president and program manager, said in the company’s statement.

Raytheon officials greeted the win.

“We are pretty happy here today,” Mike Henchey, director of business development for the Raytheon’s Tactical Airborne System group, told reporters during a teleconference on Friday while discussing the win.

“We were told by Boeing in their initial evaluation summary that they were pleased not only with the very high reliability that we were able to offer and we will deliver on this program, but also the growth capabilities that we have added,” said Jim Hvizd, Raytheon’s F-15E capture lead, during the same discussion.

“We had several growth features that were built in that will allow Boeing and the Air Force to enhance the jets capabilities at very low cost at very low developmental risk, if they should choose to do that,” he continued. One such upgrade would allow the radar to serve in the ancillary role as a high-speed datalink for passing time-critical data streams, including synthetic aperture imagery, he said (Defense Daily, Aug. 29).

“We also provided a very affordable solution which was key to winning this job,” said Hvizd. “One of the things that we have been able to do is leverage a common AESA family of products and really drive the cost out of this advanced technology.”

The Raytheon officials said they could not provide dollar values on the scope of their work until Boeing and the Air Force had finalized their contractual activities. The Air Force has cited figures around $2.3 billion in the past as the cost to it of the RMP program over its life.

The new AESA will replace the mechanically steered APG-70 radar on the F-15Es today, providing vastly improved detection and tracking of enemy targets, including small targets, and the ability to perform simultaneous air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, according to Raytheon.

Hvizd said Raytheon anticipated going under contract around May 2008, beginning a three-year system development and demonstration phase. The first of two low-rate initial production lots is expected in 2011. Full-rate production will begin in 2013 and through 2018 in annual lot buys between 18 and 34 units, with final deliveries in 2020, based on the notional schedule, he said.

Raytheon will produce the radars at its facility in Forest, Miss. Boeing will integrate them on the aircraft at its plant in St. Louis, Mo.

Maj. Chris Anthony, F-15E program element monitor within Air Combat Command, told Defense Daily earlier this year that the Air Force’s notional date for declaring the first batch of modified F-15Es ready for combat is FY ’14.

The new AESA radar combines the same back end of processors that Raytheon is already providing the Navy for the APG-79 radar systems going on the F/A-18E/F Block II Super Hornet fighter jets with the front-end array that it is already building for Air Force F-15C fighters.

“We are taking essentially the production-ready back end and front end into our new…design,” Hvizd said. Indeed, he noted, there will be about 90 percent commonality with the back end of the APG-79, while the array will be “directly common” with the F-15C AESA front ends and active F-15Cs.

Northrop Grumman said in a statement on Friday it is “deeply disappointed” in not being selected.

“As a recognized world-leading provider of advanced active electronically scanned array radar sensors for such fighters as the F-22 and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, we remain steadfast in our belief that we offered the right technology and the overall best value solution for our F-15E warfighters,” the company wrote. “We look forward to receiving a detailed briefing from the prime contractor as to why our company’s bid was unsuccessful. Until then, we decline further comment.”

Raytheon’s win makes it the sole provider of modern radars for the Air Force’s F-15C and F-15E fleets. It won a $52 million contract last month to supply the first six of an eventual 48 APG-63(V)3 AESA radar systems for Air National Guard F-15Cs.

The Air Force also wants to integrate the same radar on 159 F-15Cs in its active-duty squadrons by around the middle of next decade.

Eighteen F-15Cs were fitted with an earlier AESA radar, APG-63(V)2, and began operations with them in December 2000, becoming the first tactical fighters in the world with them.