Raytheon receives $183M US Air Force contract to supply Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar Sensors.

Raytheon Technologies‘intelligence and space business has secured a five-year, $184 million contract to supply Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2B sensors and supplementary equipment to the U.S. Air Force.

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The U-2 provides high-altitude, all-weather surveillance and reconnaissance, day or night, in direct support of U.S. and allied forces. It delivers critical imagery and signals intelligence to decision makers throughout all phases of conflict, including peacetime indications and warnings, low-intensity conflict, and large-scale hostilities   (Picture source: USAF)

The branch is obligating $63.6 million at the time of award from its fiscal 2021 and 2022 procurement funds, the Department of Defense said Friday.

Raytheon Intelligence & Space, which secured the project through a sole-source acquisition, will perform work in El Segundo, California, through Aug. 16, 2027.

The award comes more than three years after Raytheon received a $320 million contract to equip the ASARS-2B with electronically scanned array antenna for use on USAF’s U-2 Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft.

The Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System [ASARS-2] is a multimode real-time, high-resolution reconnaissance system carried on the U-2 with all-weather, day-night, long-range mapping capabilities. ASARS-2 detects and accurately locates stationary and moving ground targets with improved range in both search and spotlight imagery modes. It gathers detailed information, formats the data, and transmits it via wideband data link for display of fixed or moving ground objects. The radar is capable of producing extremely high resolution images from long stand-off ranges and provides the highest resolution radar ground maps available today.

ASARS-2B completed its first flight test at Edwards Air Force Base in California in early 2019. It features an AESA antenna to double the surveillance range while maintaining the mapping and imagery resolution of the ASARS-2A system.