Ballistic-missile defense radar passes crucial milestone
NewsNovember 17, 2017
MOORESTOWN, N.J. Lockheed Martin has completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) portion of testing with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR). Passage of this goal means that the LRDR has demonstrated compliance to all technical performance measures and requirements. The radar system will be part of a layered ballistic-missile defense strategy to protect the U.S. from ballistic-missile attacks.
Successful completion of CDR, say Lockheed Martin officials, validates that the LRDR system is ready to move into fabrication, demonstration, and test and certifies that the hardware and software component have achieved Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 and Manufacturing Readiness Level 7.
Now that the system has completed CDR, the program now begins low-rate manufacturing, which began in October 2017; full-rate manufacturing is set to begin in mid-2018. Company officials say that it is on track to deliver the radar to Clear, Alaska in 2020.
Lockheed Martin will be using production hardware in combination with prototype systems, tactical back-end processing equipment, and tactical software to demonstrate system performance in a simulated environment to achieve system TRL 7.
