Lockheed Martin, under contract to Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, has delivered the 75th APY-9 radar that provides the U.S. Navy with information dominance through revolutionary sensor capability. More Hawkeyes have been built and delivered than any other AEW platform in the world. The newest Advanced Hawkeye variant is at the forefront of technological capability, due in large part to Lockheed Martin’s APY-9 radar. The Northrop Grumman-built E-2 has come to be known as the U.S. Navy’s “eyes of the fleet” because of its ability to simultaneously watch over air, land and sea. Any time a Navy carrier has aircraft airborne, there is an APY-9 radar at work, guarding the United States and its allies. The U.S. Navy has funded 80 out of 86 aircraft in the current program of record. Japan has purchased 18 E-2D Hawkeyes and France has purchased three.
“As the primary sensor for the E-2D, the APY-9 radar has a long legacy of providing agile deterrence for enhanced 21st century security,” stated Chandra Marshall, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Radar & Sensor Systems business. “Our primary focus is to bring our military men and women home safely, and the APY-9 sets that bar for all other AEW radars.”
With U.S. and international demand, the APY-9 is expected to be in production into the late 2020s, and in modernization and sustainment well into the 2040s. Lockheed Martin has been a collaborator on the Northrop Grumman-built E-2D for over two decades. With broad and deep experience developing and delivering advanced radar solutions to customers, Lockheed Martin’s high-performing, high-reliability radar systems specialize in advanced early warning, counter target acquisition, situational awareness and integrated air and missile defense. Lockheed Martin radars are designed with a high degree of commonality, are available in highly mobile configurations, operate in all environments and are deployed worldwide. It’s why Lockheed Martin’s radars are the choice of more than 45 nations on six continents.
The Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye is an American all-weather, carrier-capable tactical airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft. This twin-turboprop aircraft was designed and developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s by the Grumman Aircraft Company for the United States Navy as a replacement for the earlier, piston-engined E-1 Tracer, which was rapidly becoming obsolete. The aircraft’s performance has been upgraded with the E-2B and E-2C versions, where most of the changes were made to the radar and radio communications due to advances in electronic integrated circuits and other electronics. The fourth major version of the Hawkeye is the E-2D, which first flew in 2007. The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye platform delivers critical, actionable data to enable decision dominance for joint forces and first responders. These advances provide militaries with the necessary situational awareness to shorten the time between initial awareness and active engagement.
