Article Posted on : - Nov 27, 2011

EL SEGUNDO, CALIFORNIA (BNS): Raytheon is responding to the Republic of Korea's official launch of the F-16 radar upgrade competition with the Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar system (RACR).

RACR employs active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology, which Raytheon pioneered for the US Air Force's F-15C and fielded in December 2000.

RACR incorporates the latest developments in AESA radar, in a design specifically suited for smaller aircraft such as the F-16, Raytheon said.

AESA radars allow pilots to acquire targets at much greater distances, and track many more targets simultaneously, than traditional mechanically scanned array systems.

"Raytheon AESA radars are the only combat proven AESA radars currently in production. They have logged more operational flight hours and have the largest installed customer base of any AESA system in the world," said Mark Kula, vice president of Tactical Airborne Systems for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.

"RACR leverages Raytheon's industry-leading AESA technology for a cost-effective, highly reliable system that has been successfully flight tested on the F-16 platform."

Raytheon's AESA radar systems also offer unique savings due to their low required maintenance costs, it said.