The Navy awarded RTX [RTX] a $678 million modification on June 7 to exercise options for additional AN/SPY-6(V) radar hardware production.
The company underscored this is the third option under a March 2022 contract that could be worth upward of $3 billion total when all options are exercised.
This specific award will have the company provide the Navy with seven more SPY-6 radars, increasing the total numbers under contract to 38, RTX said.
The SPY-6 radar provides increased capability for air surveillance, detection and air and missile defense.
The Navy is buying SPY-6 radars to integrate into several surface ships. The SPY-6(V)1 is bound for Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, which already started with the USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG-125), which was commissioned in October 2023.
The SPY-6(V)2 variant, called the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar, is being built for San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships, which started with the USS Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD-29) that was delivered in April. It is also being made to retrofit onto Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
The SPY-6(V)2 variant provides air traffic control capabilities while still helping defend against cruise missiles and electronic warfare.
The company said it projects the Navy to ultimately deploy all variants of the SPY-6 radar on 65 ships over the next 10 years.
“SPY-6 provides the fleet with superior air surveillance, electronic warfare protection and enhanced detection abilities. This contract is a significant step forward in ensuring this technology is delivered to ships to improve the overall self-defense of the fleet,” Barbara Borgonovi, president of naval power at RTX’s Raytheon business unit, said in a statement.
RTX boasts that since the SPY-6 radar is built by combining a number of radar modular assemblies (RMAs) for each ship requirement it is more modular and scalable then other radars.
The SPY-6(V)1 consists of four array faces with 37 RMAs each for 360-degree situational awareness and the SPY-6(V)2 has one rotating array face of nine RMAs.
The company has also designed the SPY-6(V)3 with three fixed-face array faces of nine RMAs each for Ford-class carriers and Constellation-class cruisers and the SPY-6(V)4, designed to upgrade DDG-51 Flight IIA destroyers with four array faces of 24 RMAs each.
The DoD announcement said this modification work will be performed in various U.S. locations and is expected to be finished by September 2028. Most funding comes from the fiscal year 2024 Navy shipbuilding account, at $303.5 million or 45 percent, 30 percent or $203 million from the FY 2023 shipbuilding account and 19 percent or $132 million from the FY ‘24 Navy other procurement account.