Raytheon tests EASR all-purpose surveillance radar for U.S. Navy

March 20 (UPI) -- The Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar sensor, the U.S. Navy's newest radar, has completed subtesting, its builder, Raytheon Co., announced.

The rotating array of radar components was mounted on a 100-foot tower at the Navy's Surface Combat Systems Center at Wallops Island, Va., and will undergo systems-level tracking of aircraft through the end of the year.

The EASR system, a collection of radar devices on a 36-square foot platform and an element in the SPY-6 air and missile defense radar system, is the Navy's next generation radar for aircraft carriers and amphibious warfare ships.

The system provides simultaneous anti-air and anti-surface warfare, electronic protection and air traffic control capabilities, Raytheon said.

It can be used on a variety of ships, planes, submarines and land platforms, and is built in two variants: a single-face rotating array designated AN/SPY-6(V)2 for amphibious assault ships and Nimitz class carriers, and a three fixed-face array designated AN/SPY-6(V)3 for Ford-class aircraft carriers and the future FFG(X) guided missile frigates.

And its development has been quick.

Raytheon's AN/SPY-6(V)2 cleared tests in Hawaii in February and an AN/SPY-6(V)1 AMDR array searched for, detected and maintained track of a short-range ballistic missile target launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, in September 2018.

Last week Raytheon received a $402 million contract for three AN/SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar systems to be deployed on the U.S. Navy's new DDG 51-class Flight III destroyers.

"Going from 'cold steel' to a fully calibrated radar in less than one year is no small feat, but that's exactly what we accomplished with EASR," U.S. Navy Cpt. Jason Hall, Program Manager for Above Water Sensors, Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems, said in a Raytheon press release.

"The scalable building block architecture developed for AN/SPY-6(V)1 enabled EASR to rapidly complete subsystem testing. We are making great strides toward delivering SPY-6 capability across the fleet," Hall said.