Northrop Grumman Hits Target With G/ATOR AESA Test

Military Sensors Coming of Age as Talks Take Place in London on Radar and Imagery Technology Solutions
Defence IQ ~ October 28, 2009
BALTIMORE, Maryland, October 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Tests this month for a prototype partial array antenna that is to be developed as the U.S. Marine Corps' new Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) active electronic scanned array (AESA) are reported to have proven successful.
All objectives were met without incident at the Connecticut test range, declared Northrop Grumman, the third largest U.S. defence contractor. The results should lead to the next stage in the process of constructing the vastly flexible G/ATOR system as it is integrated with additional subsystems at its Electronic Systems Baltimore headquarters, while a second prototype is readied for testing by the end of the year.
The first of its kind to be developed by the Department of Defense, the technology is described as "highly mobile" and is expected to replace or reinforce five out of six of the Marine Corps' ground radar, cutting both maintenance costs and operational time. The associated AESA consists of a network of modules capable of transmitting and receiving signals and feeding the information into the G/ATOR, enabling it to assess and engage various targets in a wide range of positions and trajectories.
Pat Newby, vice President of Weapons and Sensors for Northrop Grumman's Land Forces Division was optimistic of the device's potential. "G/ATOR's true multi-mission capabilities will change the way the Marines fight and win. The successful results from the radar array tests provide a high degree of confidence that the array design will meet or exceed all system performance requirements."
The company's AN/APG-81 system is currently the key component in the Joint Strike Fighter's F-35 sensor suite. This system's capabilities and performance are to be on the agenda of discussion at the 2009 Military Sensors conference, to be held between November 18 and 19 at the New Connaught Rooms in London. Expert speakers are confirmed for the event which will also include talks on joint surveillance, airborne stand-off radar, UAVs and the F/A-18 Hornet, among others.
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http://www.militarysensorsconf.com
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