Article Posted on : - Aug 02, 2013

F-16 Fighting Falcon. Photo: Lockheed Martin.

LINTHICUM, MARYLAND (BNS): The Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation has been selected for the U S Air Force and Taiwan F-16 radar modernisation and upgrade programmes.

The new airborne fire control radar, SABR is multifunction AESA radar designed for low risk retrofit in current F-16s and is scalable for integration in other aircraft.

SABR provides improved situational awareness, greater detection, high-resolution SAR maps, automatic target cueing, electronic protection, interleaved air-to-air and air-to-surface mode operations, and all-environment precision strike capability.

Work on the F-16 AESA (active electronically scanned array) radar programme will be performed at Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems sector headquarters facility in Linthicum.

"The F-16 has been a front-line fighter for the Air Force for more than 30 years, and SABR will keep it there for decades to come. We built on our rich heritage of active electronically scanned array innovation to deliver fifth generation fighter radar capability to the F-16.

SABR will provide F-16s unprecedented operational capability, greater reliability and viability in threat environments beyond 2025," said Joseph Ensor, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's ISR and Targeting Systems Division.