According to a press release published by Raytheon Technologies on March 30, 2023, the company was awarded a $619 million contract to continue to produce AN/SPY-6(V) radars for the U.S. Navy.
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AN/SPY-6(V) radar. (Picture source: Raytheon)
This is the second option exercised from the March 2022 hardware, production, and sustainment contract that is valued up to $3 billion over five years. The system is already operational on the Navy's new Flight III destroyer but the radar is also set to be added to more ships, including the first of the existing Flight IIA destroyers that are scheduled for modernization.
About the AN/SPY-6
The AN/SPY-6 is a state-of-the-art radar system developed by the United States, designed to provide advanced detection and tracking capabilities for a wide range of air and missile threats.
It is composed of two primary radars, an S-band radar, and an X-band radar, that work together with a radar suite controller (RSC) to coordinate the sensors.
The S-band radar is responsible for volume search, tracking, ballistic missile defense discrimination, and missile communications, while the X-band radar provides horizon search, precision tracking, missile communication, and terminal illumination of targets.
Both the S-band and X-band sensors have shared functionality, including radar navigation, periscope detection, and missile guidance and communication.
The SPY-6 system is designed to be scalable, with each sensor array assembled from Radar Modular Assemblies (RMA), which are self-contained radar modules. This allows for flexibility in configuring the system to meet specific mission requirements.
