U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin announced Thursday that it has awarded a contract for production modern radars for the U.S. Navy’s E-2D aircraft program.

“Lockheed Martin’s Radar Sensor Systems market segment has been awarded a contract from Northrop Grumman worth over $600 million for multi-year production (MYP) of 24 additional APY-9 radars…” said in the company’s announcement. 

The APY-9 radar program is nearing completion of a current five-year production contract in 2020, and this new award calls for another five years of production – with deliveries spanning from 2021 to 2025. The latest radar order will include Lockheed Martin’s new Advanced Radar Processor.

“We’re excited to have the opportunity to continue producing APY-9 radars for the Navy’s use on its Advanced Hawkeye aircraft and to continue supporting our customers with performance upgrades on a regular basis,” Ken Kaminski, Airborne & National Surveillance Radar program director, said.

The APY-9 radar is an Ultra High Frequency (UHF) surveillance system that provides both mechanical and electronic scanning capabilities designed to “see” smaller targets – and more of them – at a greater range, particularly in coastal regions and over land.

“The team has performed extremely well to date in terms of delivering all of our APY-9 systems on or ahead of schedule,” Kaminski said.

Production work is performed at Lockheed Martin sites in Syracuse and Owego, New York, and Clearwater, Florida.