February 22 (SeeNews) - US security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin said on Monday that it will provide Romania with two new radars under an existing contract.
"Romania will gain greater situational awareness with two new TPS-77 radars under a contract agreement with Lockheed Martin," the company said in a press release.
Romania and Lockheed Martin have a partnership that dates to 1995 and that includes more than two dozen ground-based radars.
"For over 20 years, Lockheed Martin and Romania have built a strong partnership to enhance Romania's air surveillance and weather radar network," Lockheed Martin surveillance radar director Mark Mekker said.
Like in all next-generation radars made by Lockheed Martin, the company said it is planning to include new Digital Array Row Tranceivers (DART), which lead to energy efficiency and greater performance for the suite of radars.
"The feedback we receive from our ongoing collaborations with countries like Romania leads to the development of system enhancements, like DART," Mark Mekker added.
In 2008, Romania bought 17 radars from Lockheed Martin with $121,8 million (109.6 million euro). The radars were build Lockheed's plant in Syracuse, New York and Romanian company UTI Systems provided some of the components.
Work on the two TPS-77 radars will also be done in Syracuse, company said.
Lockheed Martin has produced and maintains more than 175 surveillance-range radars, all of which are operational around the world detecting targets at ranges up to 250 miles, 24 hours a day.
($ = 0.9009 euro)