Raytheon SPY-6

The SPY-6 air and missile defence radar, the first of which has been installed on a guided-missile destroyer, will give the US Navy a sensor worthy of its long-range Standard SM-3 Block IIA surface missiles, according to Raytheon.

A week of celebrations preceded the commissioning of the USS Jack H. Lucas which underwent final checks to confirm the ship’s AN/SPY-6(V)1 radar was ready to protect the crew after going into service. The final ceremony was held on 7 October in Tampa, Florida.

The Navy’s first Flight III Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, USS Jack H. Lucas is the first ship equipped with the SPY-6 radar. All new surface ships in its fleet as well as existing Flight IIA guided missile destroyers will be fitted with the defence system. In addition, the radar will go into aircraft carriers, amphibious ships and frigates.

On 15 December, the ship completed its Builder’s trials which consist of a series of in-port and at-sea demonstrations that allow the shipbuilder to assess the ship’s systems. These trials were also the first opportunity to test the new Flight III systems while underway.

USS Jack H. Lucas will be the 75th Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and the first of the DDG 51 Flight III ships. The Flight III upgrade is centred on the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defence Radar and incorporates upgrades to the electrical power and cooling capacity. Flight III is the fourth Flight upgrade in the proud history of the class, and the largest upgrade to date.

The DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class Guided Missile Destroyer (DDG 51) is a multi-mission guided missile destroyer able to operate offensively and defensively, independently, or as units of Carrier Strike Groups, Expeditionary Strike Groups, and Surface Action Groups. These ships respond to the full range of military operations including Low Intensity Conflict/Coastal and Littoral Offshore Warfare scenarios and open ocean conflict, providing or augmenting power projection. Flight III ships will fill the critical need for enhanced surface combatant Integrated Air and Missile Defence. 

The USS Jack H. Lucas’ radar, the SPY-6(V)1, is part of a family of advanced naval radars that can find and track enemy jets, drones, rotorcrafts, and cruise and ballistic missiles while resisting interference, like noise from rough seas. It replaces one the Navy has used for 40 years. It has 30 times the sensitivity of its predecessor, giving operators and commanders more time to react by identifying threats, including hypersonic weapons, faster and at farther distances.

SPY-6 will be integrated into nearly 50 Navy ships over the next 10 years. It’s the Navy’s first truly scalable radar, making it easy to configure to any type of ship. Each SPY-6 radar for the DDG class ship includes four arrays, a power system, a cooler to remove excess heat, and a back-end processor to compute array signals. After the arrays are installed on a ship, tests are conducted to ensure the radar’s software is communicating correctly with the AEGIS Combat System.

Some of the work is already underway at the Huntington Ingalls Industries, or HII, shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, where Raytheon is integrating the radar onto ships that are undergoing sea trials or under construction.