The US Navy (USN) has revealed initial installations of its Improved Stalker (I-Stalker) Long Range Electro-Optic Sensor System (LREOSS) on two Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs).
The first two I-Stalker installations were completed on board the Nimitz-class carriers USS Abraham Lincoln (pictured) and USS Ronald Reagan. (US Navy)
The l-Stalker programme, also known as AN/SAY-3, is a rapid deployment capability for fleet urgent operational needs (UONs) to support the security and protection of USN ships through the provision of improved shipboard situational awareness capabilities to combat fast attack craft/fast inshore attack craft. The system replaces the earlier Stalker LREOSS system, which is itself a modular, portable, form/fit replacement for the NATO SeaSparrow Missile System (NSSMS) MK 6 Low Light Level Television (LLLTV).
Stalker was developed to enhance the USN’s ability to detect, classify, identify, and determine hostile intent of potential threats to its ships, with experimental prototypes originally tested on CVNs and large amphibious ships from 2008. In response to a counter-swarm UON raised by US Naval Forces Central Command in 2010, a sole-source contract was awarded to Ball Aerospace in September 2012 for a single Stalker (NSSMS MK 6 MOD 4 LLLTV) Independent Mount (IM) experimental prototype system and eight Stalker (NSSMS MK 6 MOD 3 LLLTV) Director Mount (DM) developmental prototype systems (the IM configuration being deployed on ships not having the NSMSS missile system). A second sole-source contract to procure 12 DM systems, three IM systems, and upgrade eight of the developmental LREOSS prototypes to a production configuration was let to Ball Aerospace in April 2014.
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