US Navy exercises second AN/SPY-6(V) radar option

An artist's rendition of the Flight III DDG 51 shows the new AN/SPY-6(V) radar antenna array. (Huntington Ingalls Industries)

The US Navy (USN) awarded Raytheon Technologies a USD619 million contract to continue producing AN/SPY-6(V) radars, the company confirmed on 29 March, exercising the second option from the March 2022 hardware, production, and sustainment contract that is valued up to USD3 billion over five years.

The work is expected to be completed by September 2026, the Department of Defense (DoD) said. About USD470.6 million in fiscal year (FY) 2023 USN shipbuilding and conversion funds and another USD148.6 million in other FY 2023 navy procurement funds will be obligated at the time of award, the DoD said.

“[AN/SPY-6(V)] integration into the US fleet is well under way, with SPY-6 operating on the navy's first, new Flight III destroyer,” Kim Ernzen, president of Naval Power at Raytheon Missiles & Defense, said in a statement. “This contract enables the radar to be added to more ships including the first of existing Flight IIA destroyers that will be modernised.”

The SPY-6 family of radars can defend against ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, hostile aircraft, and surface ships simultaneously. Raytheon said the radars' scalable and modular radar arrays reduce cost and sustainment needs, while meeting the mission requirements of seven classes of ships.

For example, recently released FY 2025 budget proposal documents say the FFG 62-class guided-missile frigates will integrate the SPY-6 Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) into the AEGIS Combat System FFG 62 Baseline.

The programme's low-rate initial production EASR contract ends in FY 2022, the budget documents said, adding “FY [20]23 will be [the] first procurement under [the] full-rate production contract.”