Lockheed Martin has broken ground on a $15 million, 9,600 square foot radar test facility that will provide the company with one of the world's most advanced, large-antenna measurement systems.

The new 80' tall structure will be added on to the existing EP-6 building at Lockheed Martin's Radar Systems facility in Syracuse, NY. Once complete in summer 2009, the facility will house one of the largest high-precision, spherical near-field radar test and measurement systems.

The new facility will house state-of-the-art measurement equipment that will be used to design, analyze, characterize and test future radar systems ranging from the smallest systems to next-generation digital phased array systems.

It will have the capability to perform highly-accurate antenna, radar system and radar cross-section measurements at a wide range of frequencies. The equipment will allow users to fully automate a precision antenna measurement process from set-up through analysis and report generation.

A key component of the facility will be its electromagnetically-shielded anechoic chamber. Lined with special foam to absorbs radio frequency (RF) radiation and suppress potentially interfering external acoustics and frequencies, the chamber will provide greater test security of sensitive government equipment.

"Our new radar test facility will support next-generation sensor development for 21st-century radar systems with extremely accurate and rapid antenna signal characterization capabilities," explained Carl Bannar, vice president of Lockheed Martin Radar Systems.

"The facility's design will ensure that our customers' requirements for protecting allied troops and providing homeland defense are met for the most demanding applications."

An early user of the new facility will be the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS), a mobile air and missile defense system designed to replace Patriot systems in the United States and Germany and Nike Hercules systems in Italy.

Lockheed Martin's Syracuse facility is developing the new MEADS surveillance radar and will contribute significant software and hardware components of the MEADS Multifunction Fire Control Radar.

In 2007, Lockheed Martin Radar Systems awarded MI Technologies of Suwanee, GA a $9.9 million contract to design and build the radar test and measurement facility. The company is a leading supplier of RF and microwave antennae and radar cross section testing products, systems and services.