Cobra Judy Replacement starts trials

The US Department of Defense's new missile range instrumentation ship arrived at Port Canaveral in Florida on 16 July to begin at-sea testing as part of its year-long integration and test phase.

Built by VT Halter Marine in Pascagoula, Mississippi, USNS Howard O. Lorenzen (T-AGM 25) is the host platform for the Cobra Judy Replacement (CJR) mission solution designed to provide worldwide, high-quality radar data on foreign ballistic missiles in support of international treaty verification.

The ship will replace the ageing USNS Observation Island (T-AGM 23) and its legacy Cobra Judy radar payload in 2014.

The CJR radar suite is a fully integrated, dual-band active phased array radar system given the name Cobra King. The data collection system consists of X- and S-band sensors, a common radar suite controller and related equipment.

Developed by Northrop Grumman, the S-band radar will serve as the primary search and acquisition sensor and will be capable of tracking and collecting data on a large number of objects in a multi-target complex. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems is the prime contractor and developer of the X-band phased array, which will provide very high-resolution data on objects of interest.