The U.S. Marine Corps has ordered additional Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar systems from Northrop Grumman.

The nine AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR systems incorporate advanced Gallium Nitride, or GaN technology, and are in low-rate production.

"There are no other GaN ground-based active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars in production today," said Roshan Roeder, director, mission solutions, Northrop Grumman. "G/ATOR is the first DOD (Department of Defense) ground-based AESA system to incorporate GaN in a production program.

"We proposed this technology as a cost savings measure for the government and funded risk reduction internally to ensure a seamless insertion into the G/ATOR system."

The radars' Gallium Nitride technology will providing the Marine Corps with nearly $2 million in life-cycle cost savings per system. It also provides a number of performance benefits. Among them: lower input power needs, higher efficiency and higher output power, which can substantially increase threat detection and tracking ranges for air surveillance, weapon cueing, counter-fire target acquisition and air traffic control.

Northrop, already contracted for six G/ATOR systems, said the first will be delivered to the Marine Corps early next year.