The new Sentinel A4 radar will provide improved surveillance, detection, and classification capabilities against current and emerging aerial threats in order to protect battlefield maneuver formations and high value static assets to include: command and control nodes, tactical assembly areas and geo-political centers. This needed capability will help protect our warfighters for the next 40 years.

The US Army awarded the Sentinel A4 contract in September of 2019.  Since then, the program has achieved several milestones ahead of schedule, including System Requirements Review/ System Functional Review (SRR/SFR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and the Critical Design Reviews (CDR). In September of 2020, the Sentinel A4 radar array prototype became operational, five months ahead of schedule.

In October 2021, The U.S. Army Sentinel A4 Program Office provided an accelerated contract award to Lockheed Martin to begin production for five additional radar systems developed specifically to detect and identify cruise missiles, unmanned aerial systems, rotary wing and fixed wing aircraft, and rocket, artillery, and mortar threats. Army soldiers will use these radars to evaluate the operations of the new Sentinel A4s, which are projected to be delivered by the end of 2022.

Even though the initial Sentinel A4 contract for 18 radars was awarded only two years ago, the Sentinel A4 team already completed production of the first A4 system this summer. Lockheed Martin executed a full radar development program, including the traditional design process events, most of which was completed during strict COVID-19 conditions, in that short timeframe. The first five systems of the original contract are expected to be delivered to the U.S. Army in March 2022.