Lockheed Martin Delivers First Five Sentinel A4 Air & Missile Defense Radars To U.S. Army

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On May 26, 2022, the STARE Project Office, U.S. Army Sentinel Product Office received the first five radars of its initial contract with Lockheed Martin. The Sentinel A4 radar is developed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin in Syracuse, N.Y., and has been on an accelerated schedule since the project was awarded in September 2019.

“We are one step closer to getting this enhanced capability to our warfighters,” stated Leah Cook, Sentinel Product Director for the U.S. Army Sentinel A4 program office. “The delivery of the first five radars is a result of collaboration and a continued commitment to the U.S. Army.”

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The U.S. Army and Lockheed Martin have a strong partnership founded on collaboration and trust. The process has included virtual reviews and working groups to maintain momentum through all program development phases.

“Our team understands the criticality of this technology and the need to get it fielded,” said Mark Mekker, director of Army Radars for Lockheed Martin. “Our soldiers are in unpredictable environments, and the Sentinel A4 will provide improved eyes on the field to keep them safe.”

What’s Next?

Lockheed Martin will support the Army in the government test program phase into early 2023. The radars will undergo mobility, environmental, radar performance and logistics testing. Production of the next five radar systems is already underway, and delivery is expected to begin in March 2023.

Future Forward to Protect Against Evolving Threats

The Sentinel A4’s open scalable radar architecture is the cornerstone of the radar system’s design and allows for addressing evolving threats with software modifications only. 

The new air and missile defense radar will provide improved capability over the previous iteration, the Sentinel A3. It will outperform the legacy radar, delivering improvements in contested environments against cruise missiles, unmanned aerial systems, rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft, and rocket, artillery, and mortar threats.  This includes enhanced surveillance, detection, and classification capabilities to protect U.S. Army maneuver formations.

Efficiencies & Cost Savings

Lockheed Martin radars are designed with a high degree of commonality. The company’s TPY-4 ground based air surveillance radar was built and validated under Lockheed Martin investment and significantly leveraged the Sentinel A4 radar design.

“Commonality across the radar portfolio enable sustainment efficiencies and significant cost savings for our customers. Our scalable technology, coupled with these efficiencies, has resulted in significant international interest in both the Sentinel A4 and TPY-4 radars to replace older assets that simply cannot be upgraded to match what our next generation systems are offering,” said Chandra Marshall, Vice President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin’s Radar and Sensor Systems business.

Lockheed Martin continues to invest significantly in the advancement of its software-defined radar technology, including its automated manufacturing processes which improves quality and will lead to even further cost reductions.