Raytheon has been awarded two U.S. Navy contracts for the Dual Band Radar, the multimission air defense radar for the future USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), America's next-generation aircraft carrier.

Under the contracts, with a total value of $53.6 million, Raytheon will enhance the system's software to optimize power efficiency and ready the radar suite for the next phase of testing and evaluation.

"DBR is the first U.S. naval radar system capable of simultaneous, coordinated operation across two frequency ranges," said Raytheon's Kevin Peppe, vice president of Integrated Defense Systems' Seapower Capability Systems.

"Leveraging proven technologies and our radar expertise that spans 70 years, DBR will be the U.S. Navy's most capable radar and a critical asset for the fleet."

Capability and Performance
The DBR is an advanced air defense radar that will provide superior surveillance capabilities supporting CVN 78 air operations and ship self-defense.

The radar combines the benefits of the X-band AN/SPY-3 Multi-Function Radar and the S-band Volume Search Radar (VSR), which operate together in a complementary manner.

DBR provides superior performance in a broad range of environments and supports a wide variety of mission requirements, including self-defense/anti-air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, situational awareness, land attack, naval gunfire support, surface search, navigation and air traffic control.

The upcoming test and evaluation follows a significant May 2010 milestone: For the first time in history, the U.S. Navy successfully tracked targets with a multiband radar featuring a common radar suite controller.

DBR simultaneously used AN/SPY-3's and VSR's search capabilities to acquire and track the targets. This event also demonstrated the system's ability to perform automatic handover from S-band to X-band in precision-tracking mode, a key feature of the radar and its single track manager.

The DBR is the result of more than a decade of collaboration between Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and the Navy. The radar is now in production for the Ford class aircraft carrier, where it will replace six legacy radar systems.

+ Raytheon's Radar Expertise and Heritage

+ Raytheon's skill and experience working with large-scale, active phased-array radars spans the frequency spectrum and dates back to Cobra Judy and Early Warning Radar programs, continuing today with the advanced Dual Band Radar, AN/TPY-2 and Cobra Judy Replacement programs.

The company has a long heritage of developing and producing some of the world's most capable radars, dating back to the 1940s.

Raytheon has produced more than 1.8 million AESA (active electronically scanned array) T/R modules to date and has decades of experience working with adaptive beamforming technologies. Raytheon is also the industry leader in high-performance GaN technology.