Northrop Grumman Corporation has successfully installed a production APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) on a U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California. The fit check, performed August 2 at the request of the Marine Corps, demonstrated SABR is a low-risk option for installation on F/A-18C/D Hornets and that the radar can be integrated with the aircraft’s power, cooling and avionics systems.
The Marine Corps asked for an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) solution due to the radar’s increase in reliability and sustainability with no decrease in operational performance. The Marine Corps’ stated objective is to modify an in-production, fielded AESA while meeting the current size, weight, power and cooling requirements of the F/A-18 C/D. The greater bandwidth, speed, and agility of AESA radars enable fighter and legacy aircraft to detect, track, and identify a greater numbers of targets, faster and at longer ranges and to operate in hostile electronic environments. Northrop Grumman have proven our production APG-83 SABR radar fits into the F/A-18 C/D, achieving the objectives and bringing the technical maturity needed to attain the Marine Corps fleet insertion timelines.
AESA fire control radar The APG-83 is a multifunction Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) fire control radar that delivers fifth-generation fighter capabilities to counter and defeat increasingly sophisticated threats. . Building on Northrop Grumman’s 40-year legacy producing radars for the F-16, it integrates within the F-16’s current structural, power and cooling constraints without Group A aircraft modification. The capabilities of this advanced AESA are derived from Northrop Grumman’s family of highly successful 5th generation fighter AESA radars, the F-22’s APG-77 and F-35’s APG-81.
Northrop Grumman is competing to replace the mechanically-scanned radar on F/A-18C/Ds with an AESA radar. The Marine Corps plans to upgrade the radar on approximately 100 F/A-18C/Ds. The APG-83 will address survivability, reliability and maintainability concerns for the U.S. Marine Corps. Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, space, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide.
