AN/APG-83 SABR radar undergoes upgrades for domestic defense
NewsOctober 20, 2020
FALLS CHURCH, Va. The U.S. Air Force has met Full Operational Capability (FOC) readiness for Northrop Grumman Corporation’s AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar on Air National Guard F-16s to meet a U.S. Northern Command Joint Emergent Operational Need (JEON) for homeland defense.
According to the contract officials, the U.S. Air Force began installation of APG-83 radars on Air National Guard F-16s at Joe Foss Field, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the fourth U.S. Air Force base to receive AN/APG-83 SABR AESA radar upgrades.
The radar upgrade of Air National Guard F-16s is intended to extend the operational viability and reliability of the fleet while providing pilots with 5th-generation fighter radar capabilities to defend U.S. airspace.
The AN/APG-83 is designed with all-weather, high-resolution synthetic aperture radar mapping to present the pilot with a large surface image for more precise target identification and strike compared to legacy systems. Its design incorporates hardware and operating modes from Northrop Grumman's fifth-generation F-35 and F-22 AESA radars.
