The Army has deployed the first Lockheed Martin [LMT] Enhanced AN/TPQ-36 (EQ-36) counterfire target acquisition radars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the company said.
The EQ-36 systems can detect, classify, track and locate enemy fire such as mortars, artillery and rockets in either 360- or 90-degree modes.
The new radars are supplementing and will eventually replace the legacy AN/TPQ-36 and AN/TPQ-37 medium-range radars now in the inventory.
“From the start, the EQ-36 program has been about the soldier and the Army’s urgent need to protect them from daily indirect fire threats, said Carl Bannar, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Radar Systems. “With more than 40 years of radar experience, we developed the EQ-36 radar in fewer than 30 months–less than half the time it traditionally takes to develop a new radar system.” In April, the Army ordered 17 additional counterfire target acquisition radars under a $108 million contract.
In July 2009, Lockheed Martin delivered the first two systems to the Army ahead of schedule after successful live-fire field-testing at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz.
Lockheed Martin was awarded the initial contract in January 2007 and is teamed with SRC on the program.
A year later, the company was awarded an $84 million contract to accelerate the production and delivery of the 12 Enhanced AN/TPQ-36 radar contract options. Ten of the 12 initial production systems have been delivered. The final two will be delivered in November after live-fire testing.