AN/SPY-6(V)4 completes first live test

Raytheon, a subsidiary of the American defence contractor RTX, announced on August 26 that it has successfully completed the first live test of the new AN/SPY-6(V)4 radar in a maritime environment. The milestone was reached during recent tests conducted at the Advanced Radar Detection Laboratory, located at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii.

The tests involved the radar successfully tracking both air and surface targets across a variety of conditions, validating years of computer modelling and simulation work. The data gathered from these trials, the first live data set for the (V)4 configuration, will be used to refine the system ahead of its eventual deployment on naval vessels.

The AN/SPY-6(V)4 is a crucial component of the Navy’s plan to upgrade its fleet of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, specifically the DDG 51 Flight IIA vessels. These destroyers are multi-mission surface combatants, equipped with a comprehensive suite of offensive and defensive weaponry, including the family of Standard Missiles for air defence, and a range of other weapons for anti-submarine, and anti-surface warfare. The new radar is intended to significantly enhance their ability to detect and track threats in real-time, providing sailors with a more effective means of tracking and engaging ballistic and hypersonic missiles. 

The US Navy recently conducted a test using USS Pinckney which successfully simulated an engagement against a hypersonic missile using the Aegis baseline 9 weapon system. That test also included targeting data that was passed to the destroyer from the US space-based missile detection system. Those tests paved the way for a live fire interception that is planned for 2026, and notably used the ship’s existing radar, the AN/SPY-1D. 

“The successful live demonstration of the SPY-6(V)4 radar is a major step forward in advancing the capabilities of today’s fleet and supporting allied operations worldwide,” said Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon. The company anticipates that the radar’s improved detection and tracking will enable the existing Flight IIA destroyers to more effectively address evolving threats.

The USS Pinckney mentioned above is a Flight IIA destroyer, which refers to all variants with hull numbers between DDG-79 and DDG-124, as well as DDG-127. The AN/SPY-6(V)4 will be integrated onto these destroyers in the coming years.

AN/SPY-6, a big contract

A hardware, production, and sustainment contract for the AN/SPY-6 family was awarded to Raytheon in March 2022. The agreement, with a base value of $651 million (£518.5 million/€608.6 million), has options that could bring the total value of the five-year contract to an estimated $3.2 billion (£2.55 billion/€2.99 billion). This initial contract was designed to equip up to 31 US Navy ships with the SPY-6 family of radars, providing a steady production pipeline for the advanced systems and ensuring that the Navy’s modernisation efforts remain on schedule. 

The US Navy awarded a contract to Raytheon in June for the procurement of the AN/SPY-6 family of radars. The contract includes the production of full-rate AN/SPY-6(V)1 and AN/SPY-6(V)3 radars, as well as the initial production of the AN/SPY-6(V)4 system. It was valued at up to $677 million (£503.7 million/€582.8 million) and added another seven radars to the production order, bringing the total up to 38. Already, USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG125, a Flight III Arleigh Burke) was commissioned with the AN/SPY-6(V)1 radar in 2023. USS Jack H. Lucas has 37 RMAs in each of its four radar faces, a 50% increase over the 24 included in the AN/SPY-6(V)4. 

The (V)4 is the latest variant in the SPY-6 family to undergo live maritime testing. The program is expected to continue with system enhancements, leveraging common hardware and software across all variants to ensure seamless integration and scalability. Over the next decade, the SPY-6 radar system is projected to be deployed on more than 60 US Navy ships.

Tech Profile: AN/SPY-6(V)4

The AN/SPY-6(V)4 is a scaled variant of the AN/SPY-6 radar family, designed to provide advanced capabilities for US Navy Flight IIA destroyers. As a modular and scalable system, it shares common components with other SPY-6 variants, which simplifies maintenance and training while reducing overall costs. The radar is built using Radar Modular Assemblies (RMAs), each a self-contained radar in a small, 2x2x2-foot cube. The (V)4 configuration is a 24-RMA system, providing robust power and a high level of sensitivity.

Key Technical Specifications:

• RMA-based architecture: The use of RMAs allows the radar to be configured to different ship classes, optimising performance and size. The (V)1 and (V)4 variants have the greatest number of RMAs, allowing them to track more advanced threats, while the (V)2 and (V)3 operate a rotated face with nine RMAs, and three faces each with nine RMAs respectively.
• Digital beamforming and receive technology: The radar’s all-digital architecture enhances its ability to detect and track multiple targets simultaneously.
• Sensitivity: The system is engineered to have a sensitivity that is 35 times greater than legacy radars, improving its long-range detection capabilities.
• Mission performance: Designed for anti-air and anti-surface warfare, it can also operate simultaneously to provide enhanced electronic protection and improved situational awareness.

Calibre comment

In 2003, Andrew F. Krepinevich Jr. and Barry Watts of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) identified a significant strategic vulnerability for the US military in their report, “Meeting the Anti-Access and Area-Denial Challenge.” They noted that the US no longer maintained large, forward-deployed forces and was overly reliant on the ability to deploy into a theatre without opposition.

This led them to define Anti-Access (A2) and Area-Denial (AD) (A2/AD) as two distinct but related strategies an adversary could use. Anti-access strategies aim to prevent US forces from entering a theatre of operations, while area-denial strategies seek to restrict their freedom of movement within a contested battlespace. Krepinevich and Watts warned that the proliferation of advanced, yet affordable, technologies like reconnaissance satellites, ballistic and cruise missiles, and air defense systems was making this challenge even more severe. For years, however, US military focus remained on counter-insurgency, leaving the A2/AD problem largely unaddressed.

This changed in 2016, when the US publicly designated Russia and China as its primary “pacing threats.” With China identified as the long-term strategic challenge, the US military began a fundamental re-evaluation of its war-fighting capabilities, particularly for a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific. One element of this is improving air defence capabilities at sea. However, it is worth noting that while much of the focus is on the technically demanding tasks of detecting and engaging hypersonic missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles, much of China’s missile arsenal consists of subsonic anti-ship cruise missiles, which could be deployed in very large salvos fired from dispersed ships and aircraft. This makes magazine depth and the ability to replenish a ship’s interceptors almost as critical as the advanced tracking capabilities provided by the AN/SPY-6 and space-based assets. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on August 27, 2025. Credit for the lead image is Raytheon, and it shows an AN/SPY-6 (V)4 radar undergoing live tests.