The U.S. Marine Corps is replac­ing its lega­cy ground weapons locat­ing radar with a new AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Ori­ent­ed Radar (G/ATOR) mul­ti-role radar system.

The details were giv­en in a 19 August 3rd Marine Air­craft Wing’s media release, to announce that new radar sys­tem will replace the AN/TPS-63 andreduces set up time from eight hours to 30 min­utes for the system.

“The AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR will fill the void that the 59 will leave and enable Marine Air Con­trol Squadron’s across the Marine Corps to accom­plish their mis­sion of com­mand and con­trol,” said Gun­nery Sgt. Jef­fery Tra­cy, a radar chief with Marine Air Con­trol Squadron (MACS) 1.

The AN/TPS-59 radar sys­tem was field­ed in 1985 and upgrad­ed to (V)3 in 1998, by adding the TBM (Tac­ti­cal Bal­lis­tic Mis­sile) capa­bil­i­ty. “The AN/TPS-59(V)3 was used dur­ing Oper­a­tion Endur­ing Free­dom and Oper­a­tion Iraqi Free­dom, pro­vid­ing both the MAGTF com­man­der and the joint com­man­der with a com­plete air pic­ture to include fixed and rotary wing air­craft as well as the­ater bal­lis­tic mis­siles,” said Tracy.

The AN/TPS-59 has been used in var­i­ous joint train­ing oper­a­tions through­out the pacif­ic to include Aus­tralia, Thai­land, South Korea, Tin­ian, Guam and the Philip­pines. With the Marine Corps upgrad­ing its radar sys­tems, the final deci­sion was made in late 2019 to retire the AN/TPS-59 for the AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR.

The AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR’s pri­ma­ry func­tion is air sur­veil­lance. It will allow Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) com­man­ders enhanced capa­bil­i­ties to detect and track adver­sary air­craft, cruise mis­siles, unmanned aer­i­al vehi­cles, rock­ets, mor­tars, artillery, and air traf­fic con­trol functions.

“The AN/TPS-80 G/ATOR will pro­vide us with a much more expe­di­tionary asset, bring­ing set­up and tear­down to less than 30 min­utes,” said Tra­cy. “The set­up requires a crew of four Marines to accom­plish while the AN/TPS-59 would require a crew of approx­i­mate­ly 10 and range from four to eight hours for full set­up and operation.”

Marines with 3rd Marine Air­craft Wing will have a high­ly mobile, mul­ti­pur­pose tool that will help com­man­ders track threats in the air and on the ground and will enhance the Marine Corps’ effec­tive­ness and lethal­i­ty on the battlefield.

3rd MAW con­tin­ues to “Fix, Fly and Fight” as the Marine Corps’ largest air­craft wing, and remains com­bat-ready, deploy­able on short notice, and lethal when called into action.