The Marine Corps is greater than midway by way of receiving its most superior radar system to this point.
Up to now, Northrop Grumman has delivered 35 of the AN/TPS-80 Floor/Air Process-Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR, methods to the service.
A complete of 60 are anticipated within the stock by 2029, Katherine Rezniceck, product supervisor for the G/ATOR for Marine Corps Techniques Command, informed Marine Corps Occasions forward of the annual Trendy Day Marine army exposition.
Of these 60 methods, 5 will go to the Air Power and one is being saved by the Navy for developmental testing, she mentioned.
Artillery regiments, the brand new Marine Littoral Regiments and a number of aviation items are prioritized to obtain them.
The G/ATOR replaces 5 legacy radar methods, doubling the radar vary. This yr, the service will start work on an extended-range mode, a part of a software program replace that may give the system farther attain.
The system supplies “enhanced situational consciousness and extra capabilities to conduct short- to medium-range radar surveillance and air protection, and air site visitors management missions,” based on a Marine launch.
The three-vehicle set features a communications gear group on a Humvee or comparable platform, a trailer-mounted radar array and an influence gear group on a bigger truck.
“Previously, artillery — the Marines — had a separate radar. We — the Marines — had our personal separate radar for air-breathing and missile targets,” Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jack Linke mentioned in a 2021 launch. “G/ATOR lets us accomplish each these missions with much better accuracy than both of us had earlier than with our legacy methods.”
On the bottom aspect, G/ATOR additionally provides floor weapons a finding functionality “for conduct of counter-battery/counter-fire missions,” based on the discharge.
Marines with the twelfth Marine Littoral Regiment used a Japanese Self-Protection Power C-2 cargo aircraft to move the TPS-80 Floor/Air Process Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR, to the island of Yonaguni on July 29, 2024.
Yonaguni is the ultimate island in a string of islands which might be a part of Okinawa, which is residence to 18,000 residents and one other 7,000 U.S. Air Power personnel, based on the Marine Corps.
Marines deployed the radar as a part of coaching with enhanced sensing and concentrating on knowledge between twelfth MLR and the Japanese army throughout Train Resolute Dragon, the Marines mentioned.
Although every G/ATOR will be capable of run every of the varied missions, one system can not run these missions concurrently, Rezniceck mentioned.
The system entered manufacturing in June 2019, based on Northrop Grumman. It supplies 360-degree protection for air protection and different missions.
Whereas air protection has been the first mission for the G/ATOR, the radar may also run medium-range air site visitors management. This offers Marines the power to construct an expeditionary airport and run it organically with the G/ATOR and a precision navigation radar to land plane.
On the similar time, an ongoing effort is coaching Marines to conduct intermediate upkeep at their stage, as a substitute of pushing repairs to depot-level work which may not want that stage of experience.
The transfer shortens upkeep time and permits the Corps to maintain extra methods operational for longer intervals between detailed upkeep wants.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, authorities and the army for a number of publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written challenge on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq Battle.
