Radar Passes 9,000 Mission Milestone
Raytheon will support and sustain the sensor and processor for the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System 2-A under a $217M (€195 million) US Air Force contract, the company announced on 16 December. Work will be performed through 2024.
ASARS-2A provides the U-2 aircraft with long-range, high-resolution intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities over large areas, from as high as 70,000 feet above the Earth.
“With ASARS-2A, the Air Force can detect ground targets day or night, no matter the weather condition,” said Chad Pillsbury, Director at Raytheon Secure Sensor Solutions. “And, it’s reliable. The Air Force just completed ASARS-2A’s 9,000th tactical mission in Korea this year.”
The ASARS-2A sensor locates moving and stationary targets using its ground moving-target indicator (GMTI) and search and spot modes. Its onboard processing system delivers near-real time, precise target location data. This allows decision makers to respond quickly, rather than relying on ground stations to process the targeting data.