Mary-Louise Hoffman
Harris Corp.‘s EDO Corp. subsidiary has been chosen to supply AN/APY-11 radar systems for two surveillance planes that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration uses to track hurricanes.
Harris’ Exelis subsidiary and ELTA Systems will collaborate to build the multimode radar technology for integration into NOAA’s WP-3D Orion turboprop aircraft built by Lockheed Martin, Harris said Thursday.
The alliance is scheduled to deliver the airborne radars in June 2017 and seeks to help the agency monitor severe weather conditions, icebergs, oil spills and debris, oceans and marine mammals through the technology.
AN/APY-11 radars work to detect ships, aircraft, moving ground vehicles, as well as classify maritime targets using data from automatic tracking and identification, friend or foe systems.
The U.S. Coast Guard has used the technology in the service branch’s North Atlantic surveillance of drug smugglers, stranded boats and ice formations.
