The Marine Corps has awarded Northrop Grumman a four-year, $376 million contract for a first-of-its-kind ground-based radar system that combines the functions of five previous systems, increasing capabilities while cutting costs. The contract calls for nine low-rate initial productions units of the Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) system, which is designed to provide a range of detection and tracking capabilities against a variety of threats—such as manned aircraft, drones or munitions—while also providing air traffic control in support of Marine operations around the world. Earlier this year, John Karlovich, program manager of the Marines’ G/ATOR program, said the system is a “ground-breaking capability and a significant enhancement over the existing legacy systems. In the last 30 to 40 years since those came out, we’ve gotten a lot smarter in terms of advancements in the digital electronics and active radio frequency capability that are folded into this system.”
