Lockheed Martin gears up for full-rate production of Sentinel A4 radar

Lockheed Martin is anticipating it will receive a request for proposals to advance the US Army’s Sentinel A4 radar into full-rate production within the next six months, a company official said.

Chandra Marshall, vice president of radar and sensors systems at Lockheed, said today the RFP will follow the service’s recently approved justification and approval (J&A) document being signed out, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

A J&A is an acquisition tool the Defence Department uses to explain and memorialize why certain contracts are awarded.

The Sentinel A4, which will replace Raytheon’s Sentinel A3, is a medium-range, air defence radar that uses active electronically scanned array (AESA) to track cruise missiles, unmanned aerial systems, helicopters, planes, rockets, and artillery and mortar threats. The Army is planning to purchase 240 radars for its program of record.

Lockheed to date has delivered 10 units dedicated to government testing activities, and in July 2023 was awarded a low-rate initial production contract for 19 units, a portion of which are slated to be used for the defence of Guam, according to Marshall. The LRIP deliveries will start in the later half of 2025, she added.

A full-rate production contract award signals that the Defense Department is satisfied with the radar’s performance and manufacturing methods, and gives Lockheed a green light to begin serial production.

The radar is slated to be integrated with the Integrated Battle Command System, which represents the Army’s contribution to the Pentagon’s Joint All Domain Command and Control construct.

Colonel Jason Tate, the Army officer overseeing the program, told reporters last year during AUSA 2023 that the A4 is scheduled to reach initial operational capability in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Both Tate and Marshall also said at the time that they had received expressions of interest from international customers in the radar. Marshall today re-iterated those expressions of interest but said no contracts had been signed yet.

By Vafa Guliyeva