Article Posted on : - Nov 08, 2011

AN/FPS-117 long-range surveillance radar. Photo: Lockheed Martin

SYRACUSE (BNS): Lockheed Martin has received $46.8 million in contract option from US Air Force for the mordernisation of 29 geographically disbursed AN/FPS-117 long-range surveillance radars, the company announced Monday.

The upgraded radars will provide advanced warning and air traffic control surveillance over North America's airspace.

Under the EPRP contract, Lockheed Martin will modernise 15 radars in Alaska, 11 in Canada and one each in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Utah, which are part of the US Air Force's Atmospheric Early Warning System, by 2014.

The NATO-certified AN/FPS-117 radar is the world's most widely used three-dimensional, solid-state radar.

These FPS-117 radars were originally installed by Lockheed Martin in the early 1980s as part of the Seek Igloo North Warning programme and since then the company has made several technology upgrades for the radar.