Q-53 radar 1.JPG
Lockheed Martin's Q-53 mobile radar system for tracking rockets, mortars and artillery are assembled at the company's plant at Electronics Park in the Syracuse suburb of Salina.
(Lockheed Martin)
Salina, N.Y. -- A $1.6 billion Army contract for a mobile radar that tracks incoming rockets, mortars and artillery will help solidify Lockheed Martin's workforce at Electronics Park in Salina, a company official said Monday.
Rick Herodes, program director of the Q-53 radar system, said the contract, the largest single contract in the Salina plant's history, means the company will be making at least 70 more of the radars for the Army over the next five years.
In addition, Lockheed will be making the radars for foreign military customers, Herodes said.
Lockheed has already built 100 of the radars and has four more to go under previous contracts with the Army.
The company said last week it did not anticipate any immediate hires resulting from the new contract. However, Herodes said the new orders will support the approximately 1,600 existing jobs in Salina. The facility has 50 job openings currently, many of them engineering positions, he said.
Lockheed began designing the radar in 2007 to replace two older radars, the Q-36 and Q-37, which could only scan a 90-degree section of the sky at a time. The Army requested a new radar that could scan 360 degrees after troops in Iraq and Afghanistan reported that enemy forces were changing locations to take advantage of the older radar's limitation.
The radars can detect rockets, mortars and artillery as soon as they are fired, allowing the Army to quickly fire back on their source.
The radar is carried on trucks and can be operational within five minutes of the trucks stopping.
"It moves as fast at the Army moves," Herodes said.
Components of the radar are made in Owego, Morristown, N.J., and Clearwater, Fla., and shipped to Salina for assembly. After assembly, the radars are taken to Yuma, Ariz., where the Army tests them by firing rockets, mortars and artillery. If the system successfully tracks the rounds, it is shipped to the Army.
Herodes said Lockheed is hoping to also sell the radars for defense against unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones.
In addition to radars, the Salina plant also makes sonars for the military.
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