US Navy Enterprise Surveillance Radar Starts Live Testing on Virginia Island

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - 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.
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"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."

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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.

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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.

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