Lockheed Martin announced that it demonstrated the new long-range air-surveillance radar model that it is offering the Air Force in the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar competition. The radar prototype displayed “maturity, flexibility, scalability, and the benefits of its open technology design,” states the company’s July 29 release. Lockheed Martin leads one of the three industry teams maturing radar designs in the hopes of winning the 3DELRR production contract. With 3DELRR, the Air Force seeks a replacement for its legacy AN/TPY-75 radar. Like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon completed a demonstration of its prototype radar system on June 27, announced the company on July 30. “Our 3DELRR solution meets the customer’s requirements, has a high level of system availability” and “is extremely affordable to purchase, own, and operate,” said Andrew Hajek, Raytheon’s 3DELRR program director. The third bidder, Northrop Grumman, completed its demonstration in Baltimore on July 17, Mike Meaney, the company’s director of ground-based tactical radar systems, told the Daily Report on Tuesday. It is “a completely operational radar system” and it is “production-ready,” he said.
U.S. Air Force F-35s and F-22s regularly deploy deep into the Pacific region from Alaska, Utah, and Hawaii. In the future, though, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command would like to see the Air Force permanently station fifth-generation aircraft west of the international date line—closer to China.