HOMING IN ON SAVINGS
P
roduct Manager (PdM) Radars has a clever plan to save the Army three-quarters of the cost of new radar systems.
PdM Radars, assigned to Project Man- ager Cruise Missile Defense Systems in Program Executive Office Missiles and Space, is producing the next-generation counter-fire target acquisition radar, the AN/TPQ-53. Te system will replace the legacy AN/TPQ-36 and AN/TPQ-37
“Firefinder” radar systems by 2020. Te AN/TPQ-53 was initially fielded in 2010 as the Enhanced AN/TPQ-36 (EQ-36) Quick Reaction Capability (QRC).
Rather than purchase new radar, PdM Radars is using the legacy systems that are retrograding from Afghanistan in the near term, a scheme that is expected to save the Army approximately 73 percent of what new systems would cost. Te ret- rofit effort will begin next year and be completed in 2016.
Tis economical approach will convert QRC radars that the Army no longer needs in Operation Enduring Freedom to the same configuration as the brand- new systems, then field them to support future deployments wherever necessary.
A branch of the AN/TPQ-53 program of record (POR), the EQ-36 has been saving lives in Iraq and Afghanistan
since 2010. PdM Radars now stands poised to retrofit the QRC systems fully into the POR configuration.
Following retrofit, the 32 QRC systems will add to the low-rate initial produc- tion systems currently in production and the full-rate production (FRP) systems scheduled to begin production next year to satisfy the Army’s acquisition objective. Tis plan, part of PdM Radars’ acquisi- tion strategy since 2009, saves roughly $224 million compared with procuring new AN/TPQ-53 systems and serves as a model for the effective, orderly transition from QRC program into a POR.
AN EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT Te EQ-36, which grew from a multi- mission radar research and development initiative that followed the cancellation of the AN/TPQ-47 program, was the Army’s solution to fill a gap in long-range, 360-degree counter-fire radar coverage. Tis gap, identified as early as 1967, was confirmed in nonlinear,
forward oper-
ating base (FOB)-centric operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Indirect fire is often a 360-degree threat around a FOB. In the days of counter- fire target acquisition radars that could search only one 90-degree slice of the battlefield at a time, insurgents quickly adapted their firing positions to avoid
radar search sectors. To address this, the Army accelerated the development of a long-range, 360-degree counter-fire radar capability, making incremental improve- ments to the EQ-36 during production based on feedback from testing and com- bat operations.
Te result of the evolutionary develop-
ment was the delivery of 32 QRC EQ-36 systems between 2010 and 2013, with five distinct configurations. Te earlier a QRC radar was produced, the greater the difference between that radar’s con- figuration and the current configuration in production.
To mitigate the risk of building a QRC product that would be impossible to upgrade to the POR configuration, PdM Radars made the retrofit of the QRC systems an integral part of its acquisition strategy and emphasized the development of a suitable, stable physical configuration during system design. Te result was a relatively close correlation between the oldest EQ-36 QRC system’s physical configuration and that of AN/TPQ-53 POR.
the
On average, the retrofit of one system is expected to cost about 28 percent of the cost of a new system. Retrofitting the QRC to the POR configuration will return a fully mission-capable AN/TPQ- 53 to the Army that has been in use 24 hours per day in a combat environment for the past three years.
THIS SITUATION HIGHLIGHTS A CRITICAL RISK IN THE RETROFIT STRATEGY: THE COST WILL INEVITABLY CHANGE WITH MODIFICATIONS IN HARDWARE BASED ON CHANGING REQUIREMENTS, LESSONS LEARNED AND TEST RESULTS.
To complete the retrofit, each QRC sys- tem will be integrated into the production line. Te program will customize each radar’s upgrade to FRP configuration on a system-by-system basis based on its pre-retrofit configuration. Te numerous improvements
and enhancements will
include refurbishing all systems’ anten- nas with the installation of an advanced
22 Army AL&T Magazine
October–December 2013
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