Raytheon receives U.S. Army contract for MPQ-64 Sentinel radar support.

The U.S. Army has awarded Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems of Fullerton, Calif., a $9.3-million modification (#P00010) to a previously awarded contract (W31P4Q-19-C-0044) for field service representatives to deploy, operate, and sustain MPQ-64 Sentinel Radars.

AN/MPQ-64 A3 Enhanced Sentinel Radar System is the only 360-degree coverage air defense radar in the Army’s current inventory and features a 3 D X-Band phased array antenna that provides an instrumented range of 75 kilometers (Picture source: U.S. Army)

The contracted work will be performed in Fullerton, Calif., with an estimated completion date of December 31, 2020. The Army is obligating the full $9.3 million in Fiscal Year 2019 Other Procurement funds at the time of the award. The U.S. Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.

The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel is a 3D radar used to alert and queue Short Range Air Defense (SHORAD) weapons to the locations of hostile targets approaching their front line forces. The Sentinel radar is deployed with forward area air defense units of the U.S. Army. It is an X-band range-gated, pulse-Doppler radar system. The antenna uses phase-frequency electronic scanning technology, forming sharp 3D pencil beams covering large surveillance and track volume. The radar automatically acquires, tracks, classifies, identifies and reports targets, including cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and both rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft. It uses a high scan rate (30 RPM) and operates at a range of 40 km (25 mi). The radar is designed with high resistance to electronic countermeasures (ECM). Mounted on a towed platform, it can be positioned remotely from the rest of the unit, operated autonomously and communicate with the Fire Distribution Center (FDC) via a wideband fiber-optic link. It can also distribute its data over a SINCGARS radio network.