Lockheed Martin recently completed a successful Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the Advanced Hawkeye (AHE) radar.

Advanced Hawkeye, now in development by Northrop Grumman, is the U.S. Navy's next-generation airborne early warning and battle management system and will be the Navy's airborne node in the service's transformation to fighting warfare of the future.

Lockheed Martin leads the AHE industry team responsible for design and development of the Hawkeye's next-generation radar. The company received a $413.5 million contract from prime contractor Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems (IS) in August 2003 to begin the System Development and Demonstration (SD&D) phase. Current production Hawkeye 2000 aircraft use Lockheed Martin's AN/APS-145 airborne radar.

The Advanced Hawkeye radar is planned to meet the U.S. Navy's littoral surveillance and Theatre Air and Missile Defense missions. Lockheed Martin's team for the radar SD&D phase includes Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems and Raytheon Electronic Systems.

"I thought it was an excellent review and very detailed," said Jim Culmo, Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems AHE program director and Integrated Product Team (IPT) lead. "We were very impressed, as was the Navy customer. The Advanced Hawkeye program represents a major change to the weapon system and a good portion of the change is the radar. This was the first major design review for the program leading up to AHE PDR for the total weapon system in October 2004 so it's a great accomplishment not only for Lockheed Martin but the whole AHE program."

The new AHE radar will fit into a space approximately the same as the housing for the AN/APS-145 radar in the current E-2C Hawkeye, despite the new system's added capability and complexity. During the SD&D phase the company will produce two Engineering Development Models (EDMs) and four pre-production radar systems that will be used by Northrop Grumman IS for qualification, reliability and flight testing. A full-scale production program to equip the 75 Advanced Hawkeye aircraft that the Navy plans to procure by 2020 will follow.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 130,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems, products and services.

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SOURCE: Lockheed Martin