Raytheon Missiles & Defense has delivered the first SPY-6 radar arrays for the US Navy’s Gerald R Ford-class aircraft carrier, the future USS John F Kennedy (CVN 79).
CVN 79 is the US Navy’s first aircraft carrier to be equipped with the advanced radar. It is also the first of three carriers of the class to receive the radar arrays.
The vessel, which is currently under construction, recently achieved a milestone in its systems and compartment structure with Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding (HII-NNS).
Raytheon Missiles & Defense Naval Power president Kim Ernzen said: “This is the first aircraft carrier that will be equipped with SPY-6 radars, the leading naval radar system in the world.
“With the recent contract, SPY-6 will provide premier detection and coverage for more than 40 ships in the US Navy throughout the next decade.”
Designed for guided missile frigates and Ford-class aircraft carriers, the SPY-6(V)3, also called enterprise air surveillance radar (EASR) provides 360-degree situational awareness to the vessels.
Featuring three fixed-face radar arrays, the SPY-6(V)3 is designed to simultaneously defend the vessel against anti-surface threats, anti-ship threats, cruise missiles, jamming/clutter and electronic warfare.
In addition, it provides air traffic control and weather mapping functionalities to the aircraft carriers.
Raytheon’s SPY-6 family of radars can provide integrated air and missile defence for seven different classes of ships.
Its radar modular assemblies enable SPY-6 to be modular and scalable to support its production across all the variants for the US allied and partner nations.
In 2019, the US Navy conducted live-test for the next-generation EASR radar at Wallops Island Test Facility in Virginia, US.
