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Lockheed Martin in Syracuse, NY receives a 5-year, $37.6 million fixed-price-requirements repair contract for items to support the E-2C Hawkeye’s APS-145 radar system. Work will be performed in Syracuse, NY, and will run to June 2016. Since the radar is a Lockheed Martin product, the contract was not competitively procured by the US Naval Inventory Control Point in Philadelphia, PA (N00383-11-D-006N).
The AN/APS-145 is the core of the E-2C Hawkeye’s fleet and land overwatch capability. As cruise missiles offer less and less reaction time, and enemy aircraft continue to improve, the Hawkeye’s job is becoming even more important. Fortunately, the new E-2D Advanced Hawkeye’s AN/APY-9 radar will be more than a generation ahead of its predecessor, and offer far wider coverage. At present, however, it’s the E-2C and its APS-145 that equips all operational US Navy units. Their UHF Doppler radar is mounted on a rotating antenna, and can monitor and track more than 20,000 targets simultaneously, including targets amidst the extreme clutter of waves and near-shore environments, while maintaining high resistance to jamming and countermeasures. That’s still an impressive piece of kit, which is part of the reason the Hawkeye has carved out such a strong customer base for countries needing aerial surveillance over land and water.