The U.S. Navy AN/SPY-1 Radar and Aegis: High-level Introduction and Historical Perspectives

The first AN/SPY-1 radar was deployed nearly 40 years ago, and today the system and its variants remain an essential part of U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency operations. AN/SPY-1 is the primary fire control radar for the Aegis Combat System on guided-missile U.S. Navy Destroyers and Cruisers. This presentation provides a high-level introduction to the AN/SPY-1 radar and Aegis, touching on early developments and describing Aegis ships and mission roles. Recent key capability upgrades are briefly described, such as Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), Aegis Ashore, and Naval Integrated Fire Control – Counter Air (NIFC-CA). The presentation concludes with current programs to advance Aegis capabilities for the coming years, such as the development of the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AN/SPY-6). The AN/SPY-1 radar is an S-band, multi-function passive electronically scanned array (PESA) with four fixed array faces. The radar provides 360° air surveillance, detection, tracking, and discrimination of air, surface, and missile threats, and supports a variety of missile interceptors. AN/SPY-1 has evolved from a single platform air defense system into a flexible multi-mission platform. Over its service lifetime, AN/SPY-1 development has continuality pushed the boundaries of radar technology due to a challenging and evolving requirement set (e.g., short engagement timelines, high precision tracking for engagement missile support, missile defense applications, simultaneous multi-mission performance, and clutter mitigation in adverse propagation conditions). This briefing pulls from open source material to provide the audience with context and high-level perspectives into AN/SPY-1 programs, ships, and mission areas. Speaker(s): Dr. Mike Frye, Room: 1026, Bldg: B11, GTRI CCRF South, 2001 Dixie Ave, Smyrna, Georgia, United States, 30080, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/330598