Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) designed for the F-16 fighter aircraft recently demonstrated its autonomous, all-environment precision targeting capability, which will enhance the aircraft’s mission capabilities.

The capability, known as Auto Target Cueing (ATC), uses high-definition synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to locate and prioritize targets of interest and display them to the pilot. The active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar architecture allows it to carry out this function while performing other tasks at the same time.

“With SABR, we have built on our F-35 radar investment to bring fifth generation fighter radar capabilities such as ATC to the F-16,” said Joseph Ensor, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman’s Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting Systems Division. “Features like ATC, along with the F-35 modes that we have ported to SABR, will enable greater mission effectiveness, reduce pilot workload and provide a better level of situational awareness than F-16 pilots have ever had.”

SABR is an affordable, multifunction AESA radar designed specifically for F-16 retrofit. SABR provides longer detection and tracking ranges, high-resolution SAR maps for all-environment precision targeting, interleaved mode operations for greater situational awareness and greater reliability.

Northrop Grumman has nearly four decades of F-16 radar development and integration experience, and has delivered more than 6,000 fire control radars to U.S. and international air forces. The company also supplies the AESA fire control radars for the F-16 Block 60, F-22 and F-35 aircraft.

Northrop Grumman press release