US Navy Enterprise Surveillance Radar Starts Live Testing On Virginia Island - Raytheon

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2019) The US Navy's new Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) is beginning live testing at the Wallops Island Test Facility in the state of Virginia, the Raytheon Company said in a press release.

"Raytheon Company's EASR just took a 12-hour trip down the Eastern Seaboard," the release said on Tuesday. "The six feet by six feet rotating array was wrapped, loaded onto a flatbed truck and eventually crane-lifted onto a 100 foot test tower at the Surface Combat Systems Center at Wallops Island."

EASR, the newest sensor in the US Navy's SPY-6 family of radars, recently completed subsystem testing at Raytheon's Near Field Range in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Raytheon noted that the radar will now undergo system-level testing, tracking a variety of aircraft through the end of 2019.

"EASR is the Navy's next generation radar for aircraft carriers and amphibious warfare ships that provides simultaneous anti-air and anti-surface warfare, electronic protection and air traffic control capabilities," Raytheon said.

Raytheon is building two variants of EASR: a single-face rotating array designated AN/SPY-6(V)2 for amphibious assault ships and Nimitz class carriers, and a three fixed-face array designated AN/SPY-6(V)3 for Ford class aircraft carriers and future FFG(X) guided missile frigates, the release said.