The United States Marine Corps for the first time has deployed one of its units along with an AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) to Lithuania to support NATO’s enduring Air Policing mission.
According to a press release from Alliance, this unit provides multi-domain command and control, air defense, air traffic control, radar surveillance, and communications support. The G/ATOR allows Marines to conduct air surveillance and air domain awareness in support of NATO operations.
“This deployment highlights the expeditionary character of our Marines and the command and control systems they employ such as the AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR,” said Colonel Michael McCarthy, commanding officer of the deployed unit. “With little notice and a light footprint we were able to seamlessly move from training in an arctic, maritime environment to the Baltics; reassuring allies and immediately contributing to USAFE and NATO operations.”
The Marine Corps unit deployed in support of Norwegian-led Exercise Cold Response 22 before repositioning to Lithuania. They are a command and control unit, which provides multi-domain command and control, air defense, air traffic control, radar surveillance, and communications support.
The AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR is the Marine Corps’ newest medium-range multi-role radar. The radar builds an airspace picture for controllers through active scanning.