AN/SPY-7 radar achieves first track milestone for F-110 frigate

The AN/SPY-7(V)2 EDM, installed on a test tower at Lockheed Martin's Moorestown, New Jersey, facility, achieved a first live track in December 2024. (Lockheed Martin)

The Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems' AN/SPY-7(V)2 solid-state S-band radar being developed for the Spanish Navy's new F-110 Bonifaz-class frigates has achieved a first live track on an airborne object.

Announcing the milestone on 14 January, Lockheed Martin and Navantia Sistemas said that the milestone was achieved in December 2024 by a single face engineering development model (EDM) installed at a land-based integration test site in Moorestown, New Jersey.

Intended to replace the ageing F-80 Santa María-class frigates, the F-110 design is intended to provide the Spanish Navy with multimission surface combatants marrying a primary anti-submarine warfare mission with additional anti-air warfare capability. Navantia was awarded a five-ship manufacture contract in April 2019, with first-of-class Almirante Bonifaz (F-111) scheduled for delivery in early 2028.

Navantia Sistemas is taking the role of combat system design agent for the F-110 programme, and is providing the indigenous Sistema de Combate de los Buques de la Armada (SCOMBA) combat management system (CMS). SCOMBA will integrate with the AN/SPY-7(V)2 radar and the International Aegis Fire Control Loop being supplied by Lockheed Martin under a US government Foreign Military Sales contract.

The AN/SPY-7(V) multimission radar family is derived from the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) previously developed by Lockheed Martin under a contract to the US Missile Defense Agency. Spain's AN/SPY-7(V)2 variant – which features 66 subarray suite building blocks per array – has been scaled to meet the specific mission needs of the F-110 programme.