InDyne to maintain Alaskan long-range radar to help protect from ballistic missiles in midcourse phase

Radar experts from InDyne in Lexington Park, Md., will operate and maintain a long-range radar system near Fairbanks, Alaska, to help protect the U.S. from ballistic missile attack.

Officials of the U.S. Space Operations Command at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo., announced a $31.1 million four-year order to InDyne last month to operate and maintain the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR). With options the contract should be worth $316.9 million.

The LRDR program is the backbone of the MDA’s layered defense to protect the U.S. homeland from ballistic missile attack. It is a long-range radar that will provide precision metric data to improve ballistic defense discrimination and replace existing sensors in the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS).

The Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems segment in Moorestown, N.J., won a $784.3 million contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in 2015 to build and operate the LRDR at Clear Space Force Station, Alaska.

LRDR keeps pace with evolving ballistic missile threats and increase the effectiveness of ground based interceptors, Lockheed Martin officials say.

LRDR combines proven solid-state radar technologies with proven ballistic missile defense algorithms on an open-architecture designed for future growth. The solid state, gallium nitride (GaN)-based radar uses Lockheed Martin’s Open GaN Foundry model, which leverages relationships with strategic GaN suppliers, company officials say.

The LRDR provides a persistent midcourse ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) discrimination capability as part of a layered defense of the U.S. from ballistic missile attacks of all ranges in all phases of flight.

The LRDR serves as a BMDS midcourse sensor to counter evolving ballistic missile threats, as well as improve the ability to tell real ballistic missile warheads from decoys in any attack in the Pacific Ocean area.

Lockheed Martin experts have investigated issues related to graceful processor re-hosting, such as modular, loosely coupled software design, with documented interfaces that facilitate LRDR sustainment efforts.

The 2015 contract for Lockheed Martin to build the LRDR runs through January 2024. The contract called for the company to finished the LRDR installation by 2020.