GA-ASI Completes Delivery of Lynx II Radars to US Army

Released on Wednesday, July 02, 2008

SAN DIEGO � 2 July 2008 � General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), a leading manufacturer of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical reconnaissance radars, today announced that it has completed delivery of the Systems Development and Demonstration (SDD) Lynx® II radars to the U.S. Army. GA-ASI was contracted to develop the synthetic aperture radar with ground moving target indicator (SAR/GMTI) for the Army's Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) UAS Program. This delivery marks one of the final steps in completing the contract which ends in June 2008.

"This final SDD delivery represents a significant milestone in the development of the Lynx II SAR/GMTI radar, and GA-ASI is pleased to have supported the Army in its continuing development of RSTA [Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition] and ISR [Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance] capabilities for the war fighter," said Linden P. Blue, president, Reconnaissance Systems Group, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

The eight radars are available to support the ER/MP Sky Warrior® UAS program. GA-ASI is producing an additional 33 Lynx II radars for delivery in 2008 and 2009. The first six of these units will be delivered in September 2008 to the Iraqi Air Force ISR Program, a U.S. Air Force Foreign Military Sale (FMS) program contracted through Hawker Beechcraft Corporation.

Providing the all-weather precision capability to detect time-sensitive targets, the Lynx II SAR/GMTI features the same high-performance capabilities as the Lynx I radar, but with the additional benefits of reduced weight and volume. The Lynx SAR/GMTI offers a long-range, wide-area surveillance capability that can provide high-resolution SAR imagery slant ranges well beyond effective electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) range, as well as broad area GMTI scanning capability for detecting moving vehicles with the ability to cross-cue to an EO/IR payload via the CLAW® payload control software. Flying on both unmanned and manned aircraft, over 50 Lynx I radar systems have been delivered to date to the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and other U.S. Government customers.