US Navy To Upgrade Arleigh Burke Destroyers With Scaled Version Of Raytheon’s Spy-6 Radar

The United States (US) Navy has planned to upgrade its fleet of Arleigh Burke destroyers with Raytheon’s Spy-6 air and missile defense radar.

The radars will be replacing Spy-1D arrays on the Flight IIA destroyers, improving the destroyers’ radar sensitivity Defense News reported Thursday.

In a statement, the Navy acknowledged it was pursuing the Spy-6 array upgrades as part of the 2020 budget.

“Per the President's Budget submission for FY2020 Navy will begin procurement of 24 Radar Module Assembly (RMA) SPY-6 radar sets, and associated electrical and cooling equipment in FY2022, for installation in a DDG Flight IIA beginning in FY2025. The specific hull will be named later,” the statement read.

The array is a smaller version of the Spy-6 intended for the Flight III DDG, the first of which is now under construction at Huntington Ingalls. The Spy-6 destined for DDG-125 will have 37 radar modular assemblies that use gallium-nitride technology to direct radar energy on air targets. The Flight IIA version will have 24 RMAs in the array.

A version of the radar planned for FFG(X) is a nine-RMA configuration.

The Navy is aiming to upgrade all of its DDGs to Aegis Baseline 9 or higher with BMD capability and extend the service lives to 45 years as part of an effort to grow the fleet. The IIAs make up the bulk of the DDG fleet, with 46 total planned for the service – DDG-79 through DDG-124. DDG-127 will also be a Flight IIA.