Northrop Grumman gets Contract for Nine more GaN G/ATOR Systems
GaN technology providing Marine Corps with nearly $2 million in life cycle cost savings per system
Security company Northrop Grumman has received an award from the US Marine Corps for an additional nine AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) low rate initial production (LRIP) systems.
These nine additional systems and all subsequent G/ATOR systems incorporate GaN technology, which is reportedly providing the Marine Corps with nearly $2 million in life cycle cost savings per system.
Northrop Grumman says that GaN's lower input power needs, higher efficiency and higher output power can substantially increase threat detection and tracking ranges for all four G/ATOR mission capabilities: air surveillance, weapon cueing, counter-fire target acquisition and air traffic control.
Northrop Grumman is already on contract to provide six G/ATOR LRIP systems, the first of which will be delivered in February 2017.
"There are no other GaN ground-based active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars in production today," said Roshan Roeder, director, mission solutions, Northrop Grumman.
"G/ATOR is the first DoD ground-based AESA system to incorporate GaN in a production program. We proposed this technology as a cost savings measure for the government and funded risk reduction internally to ensure a seamless insertion into the G/ATOR system. We are continuing to look at future technology insertions to continue providing the best capability out there to our warfighters at an affordable cost."