Jane Edwards
The U.S. Air Force and Northrop Grumman have equipped the Air National Guard’s F-16 fighter jets with fifth-generation radar capabilities through the installation of the AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar system.
The Northrop-built APG-83 SABR active electronically scanned array radar provides greater bandwidth that could enable F-16 pilots to detect, identify and track targets at longer ranges and comes with synthetic aperture radar mapping capability to deliver a larger surface image to pilots for improved target identification, the company said Friday.
The radar has been installed on 72 F-16 jets at nine U.S. Air National Guard bases to meet a joint emergent operational need of U.S. Northern Command in support of homeland defense missions.
“The completion of these deliveries highlights Northrop Grumman’s continued commitment to rapidly field 5th generation radar capability to the fleet to counter and defeat increasingly sophisticated threats to our nation and its allies,” said Mark Rossi, director of SABR programs at Northrop.
“Through our continued partnership with the Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, we are providing enhanced radar capabilities with ongoing agile software developments that will keep pilots ahead of adversaries for years to come,” added Rossi.
