AMDR ships

AN/SPY-6: US NAVY RADAR OF CHOICE


The Raytheon division is on contract to deliver four ship sets of the AN/SPY-6(V1) air and missile defence radar (AMDR) to the service, with first set delivery expected in early April 2020 for installation at Huntington Ingalls on DDG 125 [USS JACK H. LUCAS]...

Raytheon will also deliver an Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) to the Surface Combat Systems Center Wallops Island, Virginia in early 2019, for developmental testing 3. That testing is set to begin in the March to June 2019 timeframe....

Raytheon is, “delivering radars 24-30 months from contract award,” the industry veteran added. Raytheon is meeting the service’s surging demand for AN/SPY-6s by building additional capacity by way of a second factory in Forest, Mississippi. The new Raytheon facility will open in 2021...
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Advanced Distributed Radar capability, FY20 new start - The capability will enhance BMD detection performance, increase sensitivity at large scan angles, and enable AMDR to operate in receive-only mode in cooperation with another SPY-6(V)1 radar. In addition to BMD mission, this capability will also improve Anti-Air-Warfare (AAW) war fighting capabilities and provide advanced electronic protection techniques.
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Raytheon's Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar to begin live testing at Wallops Island Test Facility


Raytheon Company's Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar just took a 12-hour trip down the Eastern Seaboard. EASR, the newest sensor in the U.S. Navy's SPY-6 family of radars, recently completed subsystem testing at Raytheon's Near Field Range in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The 6' x 6' rotating array was wrapped, loaded onto a flatbed truck and eventually crane-lifted onto a 100 foot test tower at the Surface Combat Systems Center at Wallops Island, Virginia. Once up and running, the radar will undergo system-level testing, tracking a variety of aircraft through the end of 2019.
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Navy determines SPY-6 radar three times stronger than original requirement

The Navy is confronting a welcome challenge -- what to do with a new radar that is three times better than expected. Government testers recently completed developmental evaluation of the SPY-6(V)1 radar and concluded the new, Raytheon-built sensor is nearly 100 times more sensitive than the legacy SPY-1 radar, built by Lockheed Martin.

This previously unreported determination has implications not only for the reach of the SPY-6(V)1 sensor slated for the Navy's new Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, but also for a new initiative to swap out for SPY-1 radar from the Flight IIA fleet with a scaled-down variant of the SPY-6(V)1 and a vision to potentially create a distributed radar network across the surface fleet for improved ballistic missile defense.

The Air and Missile Defense Radar program set a requirement for the SPY-6(V)1 sensor to be 30 times more sensitive than the SPY-1. The Navy has validated that the new sensor has a decibel measurement of “+20dB” compared to the legacy radar, according to a Raytheon document approved by the Navy for public release.

“SPY-6(V)1 is approximately 20dB more sensitive than SPY-1 -- nearly 100 times -- which translates to more than three times the original requirement,” said Scott Spence, director of naval radar systems, told Inside Defense. “SPY-6 also delivers a significant increase in range to the legacy radar.”

Spence declined to provide specifics on the increased range.

In January, the Air and Missile Defense Radar program executed the last of 15 developmental tests for the $5.8 billion program to develop and deliver a larger and more powerful sensor for the Navy's Flight III DDG-51 destroyers.

Curt von Braun, technical director of Raytheon's Seapower Capability Systems, said the company -- since being selected by the Navy in October 2013 to develop the SPY-6 -- has touted plans to deliver a new radar that would be 30 times more sensitive.

“The 30 was an original number, but [during] the test period out at Pacific Missile Range Facility, we've been realizing additional sensitivity through our design margins that have been now tested,” von Braun said, referring to the Defense Department test range in Hawaii. “So we're more at liberty to advertise the better performance than was designed in the margins and now those are being officially realized by the radar.”

The SPY-6(V)1, being built in a new manufacturing facility in Andover, MA, featuring state-of-the-art robotics and automation tools, is composed of 37 radar modular assemblies -- each a two-foot cube -- that can be scaled to fit a smaller or larger need.

The Navy is acquiring a variant with nine RMAs called the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar for its new large-deck amphibious assault ships, amphibious transport dock ships, the new frigates and aircraft carriers.

Raytheon officials, who believe the RMAs could be stacked by the scores or hundreds for homeland defense purposes, are hoping the Navy will adopt a 24-RMA configured sensor as part of a new radar upgrade -- potentially for the bulk of its DDG-51 Arleigh Burke destroyer class -- that would give the Flight IIA variant a radar that would be 30 times more sensitive than the SPY-1.

“The Navy wants to make sure those older ships can be in the modern fight,” said von Braun. “And the modern fight is more complex than it was in the day when the SPY-1 radar was built. And so the Navy is keenly interested in this backfit opportunity.”

The Navy has approved for public release a Raytheon document describing a 24-RMA version of a scaled-down SPY-6 for the proposed DDG-51 backfit as being “+15dB” compared to the SPY-1. von Braun said this means the scaled-down version would deliver the Navy a radar 30 times more sensitive than the SPY-1, effectively providing the capability the Navy originally desired from the SPY-6.

The 24 RMA-configured radar for the DDG-51 Flight IIA ships can deliver a capability “that is identical to the original requirement that we had for the SPY-6 on the forward fit,” said Spence. “So, we will perform to the requirement of the forward fit, but on the smaller version of the backfit.”

The Navy's FY-20 budget request seeks $55.3 million as part of a $381 million plan through FY-24 to scale the AMDR radar down to fit into the Flight IIA ships. The Navy has 46 Flight IIA destroyers, according to a Congressional Research Service report, including DDG-79 through DDG-124 plus DDG-127.

Were the Navy to swap out the SPY-1 of all Flight IIAs, such a project could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions.

The implied acquisition strategy in the budget suggests this backfit program is part of the AMDR program and provides no indication the Navy intends to compete the project, which would likely interest -- at the very least -- Lockheed Martin.

“Lockheed Martin is supporting the U.S. Navy customer in their radar roadmap, which includes both SPY-1 and SPY-6 evolution,” JoAnn Grbach, a Lockheed Martin spokeswoman, said.

The Navy's FY-20 budget request seeks funding “to scale AMDR to backfit active electronically-steered array and digital beam-forming technology on a [Flight] IIA DDG and to complete development and integrate Advanced Distributed Radar (ADR) capability into AMDR.”

The AMDR capability, according to the Navy, will enhance ballistic missile defense detection performance, “increase sensitivity at large scan angles, and insert the core algorithms to enable AMDR to operate in receive-only mode, in cooperation with other radars.”

The new capability will also improve anti-air warfare capabilities and provide advanced electronic protection techniques, according to the budget.

In FY-17, the Navy pivoted to procuring Flight III variants, which incorporate engineering and design changes -- including increased power and cooling -- to accommodate the larger SPY-6 radar. The Navy plans to buy 22 Flight III ships.

“SPY-6 will give the U.S. Navy the operational flexibility to perform missions in ways never before possible,” according to Spence. “Unlike the radar it will replace, SPY-6 is a digital active electronically scanned array radar. This fundamentally changes how it interacts with a combat management system,” he said, referring to the Lockheed-built Aegis combat weapon system which the SPY-1 works with.

SPY-6 is combat-system agnostic, he said, so it can pair with all Navy systems such as the Raytheon-built Ship Self-Defense System used on some aircraft carriers and large amphibious assault ships as well as combat systems used by allies.

The new AMDR radar, Spence said, “offloads many radar-specific functions that currently need to be performed by the Aegis combat system, allowing the combat management system to do its job without having to spend computing power managing radar assets.”

In addition, the SPY-6 provides increased coverage, allowing “early and accurate threat detection” so the Navy can take advantage of the full range and speed of the newest interceptors paired with the Aegis system, including the Standard-Missile 3 and the SM-6, Spence added.
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The next cruiser design I really hope they incorporate a second deck gun and multiple 30 mm guns both port and starboard
 
Capthale said:
The next cruiser design I really hope they incorporate a second deck gun and multiple 30 mm guns both port and starboard
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The autocannon question is a very interesting one, for the first time in a long time there are a lot of quality options to consider. I hope they don't stick with the Mk46 mount, if they double down on 30mm, as there are better options now than when it was selected for the LPDs.

I go back and forth on how likely multiple deck guns are on the next combatant, in no small part because the decision-making happening in the Navy right now is somewhat frustrating and opaque. But there are certainly options there as well, from fairly recent advances in affordable 155mm solutions to railgun all the way to the Army's stated desire for a supergun.
 
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Xav's Sea Air Space coverage includes some AMDR news:

So,
AN/SPY-6(V)1 = AMDR
AN/SPY-6(V)2 = EASR
AN/SPY-6(V)4 = Backfit array for Burke Flight IIA

Also, the backfit array is 3,4,5,5,4,3 RMAs with the outer rows overlapping rather than all the seams aligning as on the other 2.
 
The Japan Times is reporting that the US and Japan are working toward a joint development program for what appears to be a resurrected AMDR-X.
The new radar system, anticipated to provide 360 degree surveillance on the warships, is expected to be the next pillar of the nation’s defense collaboration with Washington.

Two different types of air and missile defense radar are planned for the warships in the future, including the AN/SPY-6 — an upgraded radar system suitable for detecting high-altitude threats. The AN/SPY-6 system is on schedule to be delivered starting in 2020.

Currently the AN/SPQ-9B system is used to detect and track low-flying threats, but it is a traditional rotating radar that makes blind spots unavoidable.

The new radar eyed for development by Japan and the United States will be a nonrotating system, according to the sources.
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It's interesting that the article mentions future ships using AN/SPY-6 but not a peep about Lockheed's LRDR, which uses components from Fujitsu and won the contract for the Japanese Aegis Ashore site.
 
Surface Navy 2020: AN/SPY-6(V)4 ready for backfit installations

The Raytheon AN/SPY-6(V)4 radar suite is ready to be backfit on the DDG 51 Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, Scott Spence, the company's senior director of naval radar systems, told Jane's.

"We can start immediately," Spence said during an interview with Jane's in advance of the Surface Navy Association 2020 Symposium. "The issue is funding."

The company is waiting for the release of the proposed federal government budget, he acknowledged, which will likely take place by mid-February.

"The data package was delivered in October [2019]," he said, noting that the best way to get the AN/SPY-6 capability into the fleet would be through the backfit systems on the older Flight IIA Burkes.

Janes | Latest defence and security news

Janes | The latest defence and security news from Janes - the trusted source for defence intelligence
www.janes.com
 
news.lockheedmartin.com

Four Nations to Be Protected with Lockheed Martin's Next Generation Radar

MOORESTOWN, N.J., January 14, 2020 – Through partnerships with the U.S. Government, Spain, Japan, and Canada, Lockheed Martin’s (NYSE: LMT) solid state radar (SSR) technology will provide...
news.lockheedmartin.com news.lockheedmartin.com

"MOORESTOWN, N.J., January 14, 2020 – Through partnerships with the U.S. Government, Spain, Japan, and Canada, Lockheed Martin’s (NYSE: LMT) solid state radar (SSR) technology will provide front-line defense to nations around the world with cutting-edge air and missile defense capabilities. These nations are part of a growing SSR family of 24 platforms, ushering in the next generation of maritime and ground-based advanced radar technology. The basis of SSR is the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), which the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) selected Lockheed Martin to develop in 2015 with an on-track delivery set for 2020. In 2019 Lockheed Martin’s SSR for Aegis Ashore Japan was designated by the United States Government as AN/SPY-7(V)1."
 
I have heard that the an/spy-1d sees a golf ball or .0025m2 at 165km. And since a source says the spy-6 is 100 times more sensitive than this than that means at 165km a target of .000025m2 can be seen. Does anyone have the size estimates of this radar?
 
Not quite, perhaps: those target sizes are getting close to the wavelength used by the radar. IIRC radio doesn't reflect well when the reflecting surface is smaller than the wavelength.
 
Screenshot from video showing decoys and clutter surrounding ballistic missile warhead under interecept.

Decoy And Clutter.jpg
 
Bobbymike ref the https://www.c4isrnet.com/home/2021/01/15/secrets-of-tempests-ground-breaking-radar-revealed/ on Leonardo UK talking on future radar for Tempest fighter

Radar receivers must be positioned back from the aircraft’s nose due to their size and accept the incoming TRM analogue radar signal down coaxial cables from groups of TRMs in the antenna, which incurs some data loss before the signal is digitalized.

Leonardo is working on miniaturizing the receivers so they can be moved up into the nose and integrated within the TRMs, cutting out the need for the coaxial cable, the data emerging from the receiver must still travel to the processor, but by now it is digital and can flow down fiber-optic cables reducing data loss.

Many more receivers can be installed, meaning each one can handle fewer TRMs, each generating an individual radar beam which can follow different targets or combine with others to create a larger beam.

“By achieving that, together with supporting wider bandwidths, you can generate significantly more data, giving greater flexibility for beam steering and multi-function operation"

The Raytheon SPY-6 is a scalable radar built up with individual RMAs, radar modular assembly, two-foot by two-foot by two-foot radar that works as a radar itself, each RMA contains 24 TRMs, would i be right in thinking it has one receiver per 24 TRM/RMA???
 

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Cordy said:
Bobbymike ref the https://www.c4isrnet.com/home/2021/01/15/secrets-of-tempests-ground-breaking-radar-revealed/ on Leonardo UK talking on future radar for Tempest fighter

Radar receivers must be positioned back from the aircraft’s nose due to their size and accept the incoming TRM analogue radar signal down coaxial cables from groups of TRMs in the antenna, which incurs some data loss before the signal is digitalized.

Leonardo is working on miniaturizing the receivers so they can be moved up into the nose and integrated within the TRMs, cutting out the need for the coaxial cable, the data emerging from the receiver must still travel to the processor, but by now it is digital and can flow down fiber-optic cables reducing data loss.

Many more receivers can be installed, meaning each one can handle fewer TRMs, each generating an individual radar beam which can follow different targets or combine with others to create a larger beam.

“By achieving that, together with supporting wider bandwidths, you can generate significantly more data, giving greater flexibility for beam steering and multi-function operation"

The Raytheon SPY-6 is a scalable radar built up with individual RMAs, radar modular assembly, two-foot by two-foot by two-foot radar that works as a radar itself, each RMA contains 24 TRMs, would i be right in thinking it has one receiver per 24 TRM/RMA???
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They claim it’s a fully digital AESA. Therefore, the output of every T/R element is digitized. But there is a question of synchronization. If each RMA is indeed a standalone radar, then the synchronization might be hierarchical: within RMA per T/R element and then outside of it per RMA. Since everything is digital, and if synchronization is solved, the it’s just a matter of processing power to combine all RMAs.
 
TUCSON, Ariz. (Aug. 2, 2021) – The U.S. Navy and Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a Raytheon Technologies business, completed a series of tests on the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar at the Navy’s Wallops Island Test Facility in Virginia. The tests validated the performance of EASR’s two variants: the SPY-6(V)2 rotating and SPY-6(V)3 fixed-face radars.

www.raytheonmissilesanddefense.com

Raytheon Missiles & Defense, US Navy complete testing on Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar

Raytheon Missiles & Defense, US Navy complete testing on Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar
www.raytheonmissilesanddefense.com www.raytheonmissilesanddefense.com
 

Raytheon to start backfitting destroyers with SPY-6 radar​


Raytheon was awarded a $237 million contract in early December for integration and production support, a deal that effectively covers services such as hardware deliveries to the shipyards, integration with combat systems onboard the vessels and continuous development of the radar’s software, said Scott Spence, who leads Raytheon’s naval radar directorate.

“All the capabilities that are going to be on [the newer] Flight III ships — the ability to do integrated air and missile defense, the ability to track multiple incoming targets both ballistic missile as well as air-breathing targets, many more than the current generation radars can handle — all that capability will be in that Flight IIA,” he told Breaking Defense in an interview Monday ahead of the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium.

Raytheon is anticipating the Navy will award a corresponding hardware production and sustainment contract in the first half of 2022, he added.

The difference between the backfit radar destined for the Flight IIAs and the one being installed on the new Flight III destroyers is mostly down to size. The Navy and Raytheon have worked over the past year and a half to fit the radar’s space, weight and power requirements onboard the vessels.

“Those ships are a little smaller than the Flight III ships, so we’ve scaled the SPY-6 aperture to 24 [radar module assemblies] to fit onto those Flight IIA ships, and then we scaled all the back-end processing, the cooling systems and power systems to support those 24 RMAs,” Spence said.

The Navy’s fleet of roughly four dozen Flight IIAs are currently equipped with the Lockheed Martin-made AN/SPY-1 radar. Spence said the timing for each ship to receive the upgrade will depend upon when the Navy schedules each vessel’s maintenance period for midlife upgrades.
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TomS said:
Firefinder said:
The inner radarman in me is fucking Going full DRILL SERGEANT SCREAMING mode on that guy standing on looks to be a radar face.

You just dont do that...
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Just assume that they've edited out the "Attention on the pier, there are personnel working aloft on USS Neversail. Do not rotate, radiate, or energize any electronic equipment." every three minutes.
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Oh no it not them Im worry bout.

They can get fried.

Its the poor radar face.

They are tough, but not take a boot scuffing it tough.

You do not step on the radar face.

You will brake it.
 
Firefinder said:
TomS said:
Firefinder said:
The inner radarman in me is fucking Going full DRILL SERGEANT SCREAMING mode on that guy standing on looks to be a radar face.

You just dont do that...
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Just assume that they've edited out the "Attention on the pier, there are personnel working aloft on USS Neversail. Do not rotate, radiate, or energize any electronic equipment." every three minutes.
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Oh no it not them Im worry bout.

They can get fried.

Its the poor radar face.

They are tough, but not take a boot scuffing it tough.

You do not step on the radar face.

You will brake it.
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Ah, that bit. I'm assuming it's a dummy.
 

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