Developed from Westinghouse's WX-200 concept radar, the AN/APG-66 was designed for operation with the AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Operation with AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles was introduced with a later variant.23 Production of system components also involved Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands and Norway.4
The system has 10 operating modes for air-to-air (search and targeting) and air-to-surface operation. Air-to-ground offers ground mapping, doppler beam-sharpening, beacon, and sea modes.5
It has both "uplook" and "downlook" scanning capabilities. In uplook mode, the radar uses a low Pulse-Repetition Frequency (PRF) for medium- and high-altitude target detection in low clutter, while downlook mode uses medium PRF for target detection in heavy clutter environments.6 In operation, it also has jamming resistant frequency agility.7
The radar system is composed of six individual line-replaceable units (LRUs). They consist of:
Wolff, Christian, "AN/APG-66", RadarTutorial.eu, retrieved 9 August 2024 https://www.radartutorial.eu/19.kartei/08.airborne/karte015.en.html ↩
Info About the F - 16 "Fighting Falcon"... Volume - 3..., retrieved 9 August 2024 https://web.deu.edu.tr/atiksu/ana44/bilgi3.html ↩
"AN/APG-66 radar in an F-16 fighter aircraft", Encyclopædia Britannica, retrieved 8 August 2024 https://kids.britannica.com/students/assembly/view/3341#:~:text=The%20mechanically%20scanned%20planar%20phased,inches%20(48%20cm)%20high ↩