Naval Sea Systems Command (NavSea) ship radar officials hope by this spring to award a contract to Raytheon Naval and Maritime Integrated Systems for production of the SPS-73 surface-search radar, which, they say, will move the Navy toward their surface ship "radar road map" that aims at reducing the number of surface radars in the fleet over the next 15 years.
Ships of the Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and Constellation (CV-64) battle groups, which are scheduled for 2003 deployments, will receive the first installations of an upgraded and refurbished SPS-73, depending on shipyard availabilities.
The introduction of a new high-performance sensor on board all the ships of a full battle group, officials say, will be a timescheduling challenge. While the program office is moving toward the start of price negotiations with Raytheon, officials also are identifying the yard availabilities that might offer installation opportunities as the battle groups gear up to deploy.
Ship systems integration and the systems engineering needed to achieve it also must fit the surface community's new requirements for exhaustive systems testing through the "D-30" (or deployment minus 30 months) evolution for readying battle groups to the highest degree of combat systems engineering possible.
The SPS-73, which combines a commercial above-deck radar built by Furuno and a below-deck processor-operator position produced by Raytheon, is the planned replacement for the Navy's elderly SPS-64 surface-search radar. The SPS-64, first fielded in the 1980s, now is in service on board nearly every surface combatant except Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG-7)-class frigates, as well as on aircraft carriers, amphibious ships, mine hunters, and auxiliaries.
An equally aged air-search radar, the SPS-67(v)l, is on board all the same ships except for the frontline surface combatants. The Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)-class destroyers are equipped with the newer SPS-67(v)3. Spruance (DD-963)-class destroyers, Ticonderoga (CG-47)-class cruisers, and the frigates are fitted with the 1970-vintage SPS-55 system.
Vin Losardo, project manager for surface-search radars in the detection, navigation, and processing branch of the program executive office for expeditionary warfare, says the SPS-73 could, in the Navy's radar vision, replace not only the SPS-64 but also the SPS-55, SPS-67, and two other ancient search radars, the SPS-10 and LN-66.
The NavSea-endorsed radar plan (the Chief of Naval Operations has a slightly different version) projects the SPS-73 as the next-generation surface-ship radar. The full Navy SPS-73 requirement now is anticipated in the range of 450-plus systems.
The vision is inching forward. The Navy originally purchased 134 SPS-73 systems through a Coast Guard contract that involved about 200 systems. About ten of the Navy radars were installed on ships and at shore sites. Those systems experienced detection and tracking performance problems, and the type commanders imposed a moratorium on further installations.
The system, which typically is used on board yachts and commercial ships, consists of the Furuno 2100 radar antenna and pedestal that houses the transmitter, receiver, and magnetron. Raytheon's below-deck processor console is called the standalone operating position.
Losardo points out that the above- and below-deck components are linked only by video and radio-frequency cables. Until mid-2001 the antenna and the stand-alone operating position had not been tested as an integrated system until they were installed on the ship. Because the Furuno radar is entirely commercial, Raytheon was required only to plug its system into the radar. The company, he says, was not notified when Furuno introduced changes to the radar.
Testing caused cracks in the above-deck pedestal, and the radar failed to qualify for above-deck shock survivability testing for the Arleigh Burke destroyers.
The program office now is seeking bids on a new pedestal casing to be fabricated from a tougher material. Meanwhile, Losardo says, program engineers determined in June 2001 that Raytheon had resolved the detect-tracking deficiencies. The program conducted ship checks to map out installation parameters through the summer. Following successful testing of the systems on board the ten ships that had been fitted with the system, along with some software upgrades, the Navy in late November lifted the installation moratorium.
Losardo says that within 12 hours of the release of the message lifting the moratorium, he received five requests from fleet commands for SPS-73 installations.