MELBOURNE, Fla., Jan. 15 (UPI) -- The United States is beefing up the ability of its Joint STARS radar system to track and engage moving targets on both land and sea.
The Air Force awarded a $56.2 million contract to Northrop Grumman for an Enhanced Land/Maritime Mode (ELMM) for the E-8C aircraft that serves as the airborne platform for Joint STARS.
"The upgrade is a significant operational enhancement that will improve overall battlefield response and tactical decision-making," said Northrop Vice President Dave Nagy.
The E-8C is used to give commanders a wide-range look at the goings on behind enemy lines, particularly in terms of troop and vehicle movements. The planned upgrade will make the planes' Joint STARS (surveillance Target Attack Radar System) more effective against vehicles that are on the move, including in theory cars and trucks transporting terrorists and other high-value targets.
The upgrades will provide Joint STARS with a Swath Synthetic Aperture Radar (Swath SAR) mode as well as an Enhanced SAR mode combined in a new processing architecture that provides additional capability to disseminate high resolution imagery to ground commanders.
Northrop said in a news release Monday that the planned upgrades were tested in 2003 and 2004 in exercises involving precision-guided bombs.
"We've successfully demonstrated this targeting capability for the service's GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) during live drops at the Eglin and China Lake ranges in 2003 and during the Resultant Fury demonstration in the Pacific in 2004," Nagy said. "Now this capability is being installed throughout the whole Joint STARS fleet."
