Lockheed contracted by Northrop Grumman for E-2D Hawkeye radars

July 25 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has been contracted to produce APY-9 radars for the U.S. Navy's E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning surveillance aircraft.

The company is due to provide Northrop Grumman, manufacturer of the E-2D, 24 additional APY-9 radars for the aircraft over the next five years under a $600 million deal announced by Lockheed on Thursday. The deal follows a contract award in April for 24 more E-2D aircraft for the U.S. Navy.

The ultra high frequency surveillance radar is designed to "see smaller targets" at greater range Lockheed says, especially in both coastal regions and over land. The newly ordered radar systems also will include the new Advanced Radar Processor.

With the previous deal expiring in 2020, the new one extends a previous five-year production contract from 2021 to 2025.

"The team has performed extremely well to date in terms of delivering all of our APY-9 systems on or ahead of schedule," Ken Kaminski, airborne and national surveillance radar program director at Lockheed Martin, said in a press release.

The Navy in April awarded a $3.2 billion contract to Northrop Grumman that runs through 2026 for production of 24 Advanced Hawkeye aircraft.

The E-2D has been in use since the 1960s, and the first Advanced Hawkeye took flight in 2007. The updated aircraft is intended to give tropps expanded battlespace awareness by promising an ability to compress the time between awareness and active engagement on the battlefield, according to Northrop Grumman.

Lockheed's AN/APY-9 radar is designed specifically for the E-2D, offering continuous 360-degree coverage in all forms of weather and the ability to "detect small, highly maneuverable targets in the dense littoral and overland environments," according to Lockheed Martin.