Raytheon Co. has received a $369 M System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract for Phase II of the US Air Force’s Multi-platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP). Since December 2000, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have been teamed for the design, development and production of the Air Force’s next generation of air-to-ground and air-to-air surveillance radar. During Phase II, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman will produce six MP-RTIP radar systems: three for the E-10A (two full systems and one partial system) and three for Global Hawk. In addition to contributing to the E-10A delivery effort, Raytheon will jointly design and manufacture the Global Hawk MP-RTIP hardware and expects flight-testing to begin during 2006. Raytheon’s Phase II contract is a part of an $888 M award given to Northrop Grumman by the Air Force on April 30, 2004. MP-RTIP is a modular, active electronically scanned array radar system that can be scaled in size for integration on manned and unmanned airborne platforms. The Air Force plans to deploy the radar on its RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial reconnaissance system and the E-10A/Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A). The radar offers commanders several new ways to collect and exploit critical battlefield information. Unlike currently fielded airborne ground surveillance systems, for example, the radar will be able to collect ground moving target indicator imagery and synthetic aperture radar still images simultaneously. The radar will also be able to detect, track and identify more targets, faster and with higher resolution than ever. Finally, it will feature a radar mode known as an air moving target indicator, which will allow it to track low flying cruise missiles.
