APG-81 Radar Performs Flawlessly On First Systems Flight on F-35 Aircraft

BY : Northrop Grumman PR

Northrop Grumman Corporation’s  new APG-81 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar met and exceeded its performance objectives successfully tracking long-range targets as part of the first mission systems test flights of Lockheed Martin’s  F-35 Lightning II BF-4 aircraft.

“Over the last five years, Northrop Grumman has demonstrated unparalleled levels of program success with the APG-81 radar,” said Jeff Leavitt, vice president of combat avionics at Northrop Grumman’s Electronic Systems sector. “During the F-35 flight, the Northrop Grumman APG-81 radar met and exceeded performance expectations, tracking long range targets at all aspect angles with excellent stability. We look forward to working with Lockheed Martin in demonstrating the APG-81′s high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and other advanced capabilities on subsequent test flights.”

In August 2005, the APG-81 radar was flown for the first time aboard Northrop Grumman’s BAC 1-11 airborne laboratory. Since then, the radar system has accumulated over 300 flight hours, maturing all five blocks of software. The first radar flight on Lockheed Martin’s CATBird avionics test bed aircraft took place in November 2008.