Raytheon [RTN] and Northrop Grumman [NOC] recently completed their Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) demos for the Air Force, the last major events prior to an anticipated $1.3 billion award next year.
Northrop Grumman Business Development Director for Ground-Based Tactical Radars Mark Smith told Defense Daily on August 1 that the company performed its “Demo C” in mid-July near Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport. Smith said the company made a strategic decision to demonstrate a production-ready system as opposed to a prototype because it would show risk reduction. Smith said all prototypes have to be “productionized” anyway and using a production-ready system would demonstrate risk reduction to the Air Force by using Northrop Grumman’s full rate production (FRP) facilities, processes, documentation and personnel.
Smith said he likes Northrop Grumman’s chances at winning the coveted 3DELRR contract because its 3DELRR offering uses many of the same technologies in the company’s airborne Scalable Agile Beam Radar that was recently selected to upgrade F-16 fleets of the United States and Taiwan.
Smith said Northrop Grumman will deliver a final report to the Air Force within the next several weeks and will support the Air Force in an eventual Milestone B evaluation. Smith didn’t specify when the Milestone B evaluation would take place.
Raytheon said in a statement it performed its demo in late June. Witnessed by both Air Force and Marine Corps personnel, Raytheon said its advanced 3DELRR prototype tracked targets of opportunity and maneuvering tactical aircraft. It also demonstrated integration into the Air Force’s next-generation command and control (C2) node. Raytheon’s 3DELRR solution is a C-band Gallium Nitride-based radar, which the company said helps detect, identify and track a wide variety of objects very accurately at great distances.
Gallium Nitride is a semiconductor material that can be used to emit brilliant light in the form of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes, as well as being the key material for next generation high frequency, high power transistors capable of operating at high temperatures, according to the University of Cambridge.
Andrew Hajek, Raytheon’s 3DELRR program director, said in a statement the company met all Air Force requirements with unprecedented track accuracy.
“Our 3DELRR solution is based upon 10-plus years of company investment in our mature and industry-leading Gallium Nitride technology,” Hajek said.
Smith said the Air Force has “basically mandated” that Gallium Nitride be utilized in 3DELRR’s transfer/receive module technology base.
With rival bidder Lockheed Martin [LMT] performing its 3DELRR demo in late June, the stage is set for the Air Force’s multi-billion-dollar source selection next year. The service is expected to release its request for proposals (RFP) for the next phase of the program in August or September. The service will eventually pick a single contractor for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase, which is expected to be awarded in the second quarter of 2014.
All three companies were awarded $35 million EMD contracts in August 2012. The Air Force said firm fixed-price and/or fixed-price, incentive firm contracts are planned for the EMD periods. 3DELRR will help defend warfighters against emerging threats by detecting, identifying and tracking fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, missiles and unmanned aircraft. 3DELRR will replace the Air Force’s decades-old AN/TPS-75 radar.