Northrop Grumman will upgrade 72 U.S. Air National Guard F-16s to meet a U.S. Northern Command Joint Emergent Operational Need for homeland defense.

According to the US Department of Defence, Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Maryland, has been awarded a $243,873,277 predominantly fixed-price contract with cost-plus-fixed fee and fixed-price incentive portions for 72 Active Electronically Scanned Array radars, spares and support services. Work will be performed at Linthicum Heights, Maryland, and is expected to be complete by Jan. 31, 2019. This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with one offer received.

The radar upgrade extends the operational viability and reliability of the F-16 and provides pilots with 5th generation fighter radar capabilities to counter and defeat increasingly sophisticated threats.

The greater bandwidth, speed, and agility of Northrop Grumman’s APG-83 SABR enables the F-16 to detect, track and identify greater numbers of targets faster and at longer ranges. In addition, the radar can operate in hostile electronic environments and features all-weather, high-resolution synthetic aperture radar mapping, which presents the pilot with a large surface image enabling precision target identification and strike.

The APG-83 SABR has also been selected by a growing number of international customers and is the base radar for Lockheed Martin’s F-16 Block 70. Northrop Grumman began delivering production APG-83 radars for its first international customer on schedule at the end of 2016.