[Avionics Today February 4, 2014] Northrop Grumman is on track to deliver its first Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) this year for Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Radar Modernization Program (RMP).
In July 2013, Lockheed selected Northrop’s SABR to replace the current Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar for the U.S. Air Force’s Combat Avionics Programmed Extension Suite (CAPES) and Taiwan F-16 retrofit programs. After completing Systems Requirement Review, a Hardware Preliminary Design Review, and a Hardware Critical Design Review, several Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) systems are now in production, Northrop says.
The U.S. launched the F-16 modernization program to keep the worldwide F-16 fleet capable of flying in future threat environments. Lockheed and Northrop will offer SABR as the baseline AESA radar on all new production F-16s.
"I am proud to say that we are producing EMD assets now that will be used for final integration and testing. These EMD assets are anticipated to be identical to future production units," said Jeff Leavitt, vice president of Northrop Grumman’s combat avionics systems division.