The U.S. Navy has exercised a $14.3 million contract option with Saab Inc. to build one more AN/SPN-50(V)1 shipboard air traffic control radar, the company announced Oct. 23, 2026. The option, placed by Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River, Maryland, covers a low-rate initial production unit to be built at Saab’s facility in East Syracuse, New York, with completion scheduled for June 2028. The full amount comes from fiscal 2027 Navy procurement funds obligated at the time of award, which was made on a sole-source basis.
The AN/SPN-50(V)1 is the U.S. version of Saab’s Sea Giraffe Agile Multi Beam radar and serves as the primary air traffic control surveillance radar for crewed and unmanned aircraft aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and large-deck amphibious assault ships. Controllers use it to identify, marshal and direct aircraft within about 50 nautical miles (93 km) of the ship, providing sequencing, separation, safety alerts, traffic advisories and final approach guidance.
The new radar replaces the AN/SPN-43C, an S-band system in service since the mid-1960s. Regulators reassigned the top quarter of the SPN-43C’s frequency band to commercial fixed wireless use, restricting the legacy radar’s operation within 50 nautical miles of the coast.
Saab first won the program in 2016 with a $38 million engineering and manufacturing development contract covering three radars over four years. Later orders included a $25 million contract in 2020 for two units destined for USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) and the amphibious assault ship Bougainville (LHA 8), a $47.5 million order in December 2023 for three more systems, and a $41.7 million contract in October 2024 for another three. The latest award follows a $74.6 million modification in August 2026 for five more SPN-50(V)1 radars, with work split between Syracuse and Gothenburg, Sweden.
The Navy has planned to procure 25 SPN-50 radars in total. With this option, the newest low-rate production unit is scheduled for completion in June 2028.
Sources: Naval News · Defence Blog