Northrop Grumman has delivered the first of several developmental radars sold to Taiwan as an upgrade for their Lockheed Martin F-16s.

The APG-83 scaleable agile beam radar (SABR) will replace Northrop’s mechanically-scanned APG-68 system in Taiwan’s F-16s.

Northrop delivered the first SABR – an active electronically scanned array (AESA) – within 16 months of contract award by Taiwan.

The AESA radar upgrade is a key element of Lockheed’s “F-16V” upgrade concept. It also includes a new mission computer and cockpit display upgrades.

Northrop designed SABR to offer simultaneous air-to-air and air-to-ground search and track capability. It is similar to AESA technology developed for Northrop’s APG-77 radar installed on the Lockheed F-22 and APG-81 onboard the F-35.