AN/APG-79
US military aircraft fire-control radar
The AN/APG-79 is an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar developed for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler aircraft of the United States Navy. The radar replaces the legacy AN/APG-73 on the Super Hornet. AESA technology provides quick updates on multiple targets, and its solid-state antenna construction makes it more reliable and cost-effective than traditional radar systems. The radar has a range of up to 150 km (81 nmi; 93 mi) tracking multiple targets simultaneously.
In accordance with the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), the "AN/APG-79" designation represents the 79th design of an Army-Navy airborne electronic device for radar fire-control equipment. The JETDS system also now is used to name all Department of Defense electronic systems.
01Milestones
As of July 2008, Raytheon had delivered one hundred APG-79 sets to the US Navy, with a contract for 437 more. In an April 2011 press release, Raytheon announced they had delivered the 250th APG-79.
In January 2013, the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) disclosed poor reliability issues with the APG-79 radar during its initial operational testing as a result of software instability.
02Variants
AN/APG-79(V)4
The AN/APG-79(V)4 was selected in December 2020 for retrofitting US Navy and US Marine Corps' F/A-18C/D Hornets, and upgrading the fleets of Canadian CF-188 Hornets,. The APG-79(V)4 uses gallium nitride (Ga N) transmit/receive modules, which enables the radar to achieve comparable performance to the larger F/A-18E/F APG-79 from the smaller Legacy Hornet aperture. The greater power density of the GaN modules required the installation of a liquid cooling system, compared to the forced-air cooling on the legacy AN/APG-73.
AN/APQ-188
The AN/APQ-188 is the designation for an upgraded variant of the APG-79 adapted by Raytheon for the B-52 Stratofortress Radar Modernization Program (RMP), replacing the Cold War-era mechanically scanned AN/APQ-166. The new radar would also incorporate technology from the AN/APG-82(V)1 of the F-15E Strike Eagle/F-15EX Eagle II aircraft. Under the RMP, the APQ-188 would replace the existing APQ-166 and the upgraded aircraft would be redesignated as the B-52J.
03Operators
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “AN/APG-79”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- EA-18G Growler (12304875625).jpg by US Air Force from USA, Public domain
- AN-APQ-188 AESA Radar.jpg by Courtesy image, Public domain
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