New Radar Delivered for
Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft
BACKGROUND
Raytheon’s APY- 10 multimission
and overland surveillance radar is
being built as a primary sensor for
the new Boeing-built P- 8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft.
The radar is a redesigned and updated follow-on to the 30-year-old
APS-137 radar system used on the
U.S. Navy’s P- 3 Orion.
SCOPE
Raytheon Space and Airborne
Systems, El Segundo, Calif., is
under contract for nine radar sets
within the existing system design
and development program. Four
sets had been delivered by mid-January. The value of the program
to Raytheon through the first six
years is $97 million. The radar
eventually will be installed on 117
U.S. Navy P-8As and eight Indian
Navy P-8Is.
BOEING
TIMELINE
Raytheon Space and Airborne
Systems’ Intelligence, Surveillance
and Reconnaissance (ISR) Systems
unit in McKinney, Texas, was
selected by Boeing in a 2004 competition to provide the radar for
the P- 8.
Raytheon was awarded an initial Boeing contract to develop the
APY- 10 on Dec. 9, 2004. The first
APY- 10 was delivered to Boeing on
schedule in October 2008. Flight
testing on the P- 8 is scheduled in
the spring.
WHO’S WHO
Neil Peterson is the director for
business development for ISR with
Raytheon Space and Airborne
Systems.
RAYTHEON
The APY- 10 offers six performance modes: surface search, periscope
detection, color weather/navigation, multitarget track-while-scan,
The APY- 10 provides the real-time critical surface surveillance data, covering a very large area that allows the user to understand and then act on the
surface situation that could be immediately shared with others to support a
plethora of missions and associated operations. While performing these
patrols, the APY- 10 leverages its performance capabilities to allow the operator to maintain situational awareness within the sectors of concern showing
high concentrations of small target saturation points. Advanced targeting
detection gives customers the ability to survey large areas and simultaneously detect small targets — such as periscopes — in high sea states.
The APY- 10 adds several capability improvements over the APS-137 while
still performing its original mission at significant weight and power reductions. These improvements allow the opportunity for the APY- 10’s installation
on an expanded group of platforms beyond the current APS-137 applications.
It was not felt necessary to [test] fly the APY- 10 on another platform due to
its lineage to APS-137. While the radar has not been flight
tested at this time on another aircraft, this system delivers
uncompromised performance in every operational envi-
ronment currently scheduled to be tested on the P-8A.
The APY- 10 is an excellent candidate for placement
on all major maritime platforms requiring similar capa-
bilities. Anywhere the APS-137 is installed, the
APY- 10 has the capability to go, too.
