Raytheon's AN / SPY-6(V) air and missile defence radar has successfully detected the ballistic missile test target at the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) in Kauai, Hawaii.

The radar searched for, acquired and tracked the ballistic missile test target during its first dedicated Ballistic Missile Defence exercise.

The radar system has now registered a series of successes, including tracking of integrated air and missile defence targets of opportunity, satellites and aircraft.

US Navy Above Water Sensors, Programme Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems major programme manager captain Seiko Okano said: “This marked a historic moment for the navy. It's the first time a ballistic missile target was tracked by a wideband, digital beam-forming radar. AN / SPY-6 is on track for delivery to DDG 51 Flight III.”

Raytheon’s AN / SPY-6(V) offers greater capability in range, sensitivity and discrimination accuracy compared to currently deployed radars, thereby enhancing battlespace, situational awareness and reaction time to effectively counter present and future threats.

"The live testing we've been doing here at PMRF continues to demonstrate the maturity of the hardware and software, and the performance of the overall system."

The system was built with Radar Modular Assemblies (RMA) radar building blocks, and is the first scalable and standalone radar that can be grouped to develop any size radar aperture, from a single RMA to configurations larger than those facilitated by currently available systems.

Raytheon Air and Missile Defence Radar programme director Tad Dickenson said: “We remain on track to deliver an unprecedented capability to the fleet.

“The live testing we've been doing here at PMRF continues to demonstrate the maturity of the hardware and software, and the performance of the overall system.

“The radar performed exactly as we expected it to during this mission: all systems were green.”

AN / SPY-6 also recently carried out an engineering exercise where it searched for, acquired and tracked a medium range ballistic missile target, from launch through flight.

The exercise was performed in conjunction with a Standard Missile 3 Block IIA SFTM-01 flight test.