Northrop Grumman has equipped the U.S. Marine Corps’ F/A-18C Hornet aircraft with a scalable agile beam radar during a fit check at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California.
The Falls Church, Va.-based firm said Monday the installation showed how the APG-83 SABR can be used as an alternative active electronically scanned array on the fighter jet.
Northrop also provided an option to integrate the fire control radar with the Hornet’s power, cooling and avionics systems.
Greg Simer, vice president of integrated avionics systems at Northrop, said the APG-83 meets the Marine Corps’ plan of modernizing an in-production AESA while complying with the existing requirements of the F/A-18 C/D.
Simer added that the SABR also achieved the technical maturity needed for the service’s fleet insertion effort.
APG-83 is designed with modern fighter features that can help counter advanced attacks from adversaries.