Lockheed Martin announced that it demonstrated the new long-range air-surveillance radar model that it is offering the Air Force in the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar competition. The radar prototype displayed “maturity, flexibility, scalability, and the benefits of its open technology design,” states the company’s July 29 release. Lockheed Martin leads one of the three industry teams maturing radar designs in the hopes of winning the 3DELRR production contract. With 3DELRR, the Air Force seeks a replacement for its legacy AN/TPY-75 radar. Like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon completed a demonstration of its prototype radar system on June 27, announced the company on July 30. “Our 3DELRR solution meets the customer’s requirements, has a high level of system availability” and “is extremely affordable to purchase, own, and operate,” said Andrew Hajek, Raytheon’s 3DELRR program director. The third bidder, Northrop Grumman, completed its demonstration in Baltimore on July 17, Mike Meaney, the company’s director of ground-based tactical radar systems, told the Daily Report on Tuesday. It is “a completely operational radar system” and it is “production-ready,” he said.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.