Content area
Full Text
COBRA JUDY was developed in the 1970s to provide the government with long-loiter, ballistic-missile data-collection capability in support of international-treaty monitoring activities. Its precision data-collection system comprises two radars, both of which were designed and built by Raytheon: an S-band, computer-driven, passive phased-array radar and an X-band dish radar. The Cobra Judy (CJ) radar system has been operational since 1981, when it was installed on board the T-AGM-23 ship USNS Observation Island (OBIS). For the past 30 years, the Cobra Judy radars have been the premier national collectors of radar data on ballistic missiles. On average, the OBIS deploys 270 days per year.
Clearly, the Cobra Judy radars have significantly exceeded their original 10-year life expectancy. After more than three decades of use, however, the cost to maintain the radars and the ship (converted from a merchant ship originally launched in 1953) makes Cobra Judy unsustainable. It is therefore planned to leave service in the near future. The Cobra Judy legacy will continue, however, with the new Cobra Judy Replacement (CJR) radar system. That system is currently undergoing shipboard integration and testing by Raytheon on board the T-AGM-25 ship USNS Howard O. Lorenzen.
CJ VERSUS...