Advances in radar technology — a far cry from what the British used to monitor invading Luftwaffe fighters and bombers during the Second World War — are crucial to today's aerospace industry..One only has to ask the sailor who was recently rescued in a transatlantic sailing race, after his 10-meter racing yacht lost power in strong winds and heavy seas..He was good as dead, and he knew it.. Heinkel He 111 bombers during the Battle of BritainHeinkel He 111 bombers during the Battle of Britain. .A full sensor equipped fixed wing search & rescue aircraft on duty was unable to find the missing yacht in the 40,000 square mile search area..Lucky for him, a twin-engine fixed-wing ISR aircraft in the area for trials, immediately jumped in and took up the search..That aircraft was testing a HENSOLDT PrecISR1000 radar — amazingly, it detected the missing yacht at a range of 66 km on its first pass through that sector of the search area, using its maritime modes, whilst flying at 5,000 ft in thick cloud.. SPY-6 radar on a US destroyerSPY-6 radar on a US destroyer. .The radar was being operated by very experienced, ex-military, ISR system operators from Meta Mission Data, who helped optimize the sensor to achieve its cutting-edge levels of detection in both maritime and land surveillance operations..There were several other boats detected in the search sector, but these were discounted by correlation with the onboard maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS), allowing the operator onboard to direct the search and rescue aircraft straight to the missing yacht..A lifeboat reached the vessel about three hours after initial radar detection and found the sailor onboard, who, despite being tired and shaken from his ordeal, was physically OK..This is exactly why the US Navy wants to equip its warships with the latest and greatest radar — the AN/SPY-6(V) S-band radar built by Raytheon Missiles & Defense (RMD)..SPY-6 radars bring an entirely new capability to the fleet, according to a report in Breaking Defense. It can track smaller and faster objects at greater distances, giving war-fighters more time to respond to incoming threats against the navy..This is a big reason why the US Navy’s newest and most advanced weapon systems — the Arleigh Burke-class Flight III destroyer, upgraded Flight IIA destroyers, the under-development Constellation class guided-missile frigate, and the Gerald R. Ford-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — will be equipped with the SPY-6 family..A SPY-6(V)1 radar installation was recently completed on the Navy’s first Flight III destroyer, the USS Jack H. Lucas, scheduled to be operational in 2024.. SPY-6 radars under construction.SPY-6 radars under construction. .The destroyer was christened in March at Huntington Shipbuilding and is named for the Marines’ Jacklyn “Jack” H. Lucas, the youngest service member to be awarded the Medal of Honor in the Second World War at the age of 17, Breaking Defense reported..“That program is hitting its milestones,” said Scott Spence, senior director of naval radars for the Naval Power Mission area at Raytheon..“The Navy’s mantra is ‘keep Jack on track.’ It’s important to get the Flight III ship, the lead ship of the class, out on time to be followed by more SPY-6 radar installations for the remaining Flight IIIs that are coming behind her.”.The company also began delivering the first of three SPY-6 radar arrays to the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), the first aircraft carrier to receive the radar, Breaking Defense reported..Together, the three fixed-face radar arrays will provide 360-degree coverage, multi-mission capabilities, including weather mapping and air traffic control functionality..SPY-6 has capabilities that are directly applicable to the so-called Great Power competition and to new concepts of operation, such as highly touted Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2)..The latter envisions a cloud-like environment for the joint forces to share intelligence, surveillance, recon data and transmitting across many communications networks..In an era of threats like hypersonic missiles, anti-ship missiles and drone swarms, having a powerful radar will be essential to defending against possible Super Power attacks..According to Raytheon, Spy-6 can defend against ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hypersonics, hostile aircraft and surface ships simultaneously while offering many advantages over legacy radars, such as greater detection range, increased sensitivity and more accurate discrimination..“It’s important to get this out to the fleet as quickly as possible because SPY-6 is a game changer as it relates to the Great Power competition and new, advanced threats that are coming down the pike,” said Spence..To give you an idea of how powerful it actually is, the SPY-6 family moves beyond existing AN/SPY-1 ship-integrated radar systems and, according to an interesting essay in Microwave Journal ”handles 30 times more targets and has 30-times greater sensitivity than the SPY-1D(V),” National Interest reported..Compare that, to the Battle of Britain when radar could pick up incoming enemy aircraft at a range of 80 miles and played a crucial role by giving air defences early warning of German attacks.. HENSOLDT radar on board a Search & Rescue plane.HENSOLDT radar on board a Search & Rescue plane. .The CH stations were also huge, static installations with steel transmitter masts over 100 metres high, and thus also vulnerable to attack..In those days, radar wasn't always accurate and didn't produce a complete picture of the incoming threat — additional intelligence was provided by the Observer Corps..Raytheon’s SPY-6 radar transmitter uses a material known as Gallium Nitride (GaN), a military-grade substance Raytheon developers said is up to 1,000 times more efficient than the Gallium Arsenide used today..SPY-6 can cue short-range interceptors as well as ballistic missile interceptors with longer ranges, shortening the sensor-to-shooter time and offers combat commanders a longer window to take countermeasures..Raytheon invested more than US$600 million in addition to nearly $1 billion in investment from the US Navy in the development and manufacture of the SPY-6..“What SPY-6 gives you is the ability to work what we call ‘integrated air and missile defense’ to simultaneously track both air breathing targets, whether it’s cruise missiles or other air breathing threats, and ballistic missiles for the fleet,” said Spence..As military men say, you must see the enemy in order to kill him ... the SPY-6 radar system makes that possible.
