Lockheed Martin AN/APY-12 Synthetic Aperture Radar Approved for International Customers

For nations whose security and defense missions require around-the-clock vigilance, reconnaissance is not an activity that can wait for a sunny day. Lockheed Martin is now able to provide a radar solution that operates in all weather conditions, day or night, to international customers.

The Lockheed Martin AN/APY-12 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been cleared for export to specified countries, including Taiwan, Italy, Sweden and Korea. As a dual mode, X-band SAR, the AN/APY-12 can transmit airborne processed images and moving target detections to ground-based exploitation stations in real-time via secure data links, even in inclement weather or darkness.

“The AN/APY-12 is especially attractive to countries that fly F-16, F-18 and F-15 aircraft, on which it can be integrated into center-line pods,” says Robert Robinson, senior program manager for airborne reconnaissance systems at Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Solutions-Defense. “But the market is by no means limited to fighter jets. We’re also looking at providing this capability for smaller aircraft and aerostat platforms.”

AN/APY-12 provides extremely high resolution, photographic-quality images of designated areas of interest as well as ground moving target indicator (GMTI) detections of rolling surface vehicles, taxiing aircraft, and hovering helicopters.

A new mode incorporated into the SAR produces GMTI detections with increased sensitivity and improved geo-location accuracy. In less than one minute, the radar’s wide area moving target indicator (WAMTI) mode can scan a 10,000-square-kilometer area, detect ground movement, then overlay that moving target data onto a map. Both GMTI and WAMTI modes provide target location, direction, and velocity information.