Sixty Years in Marine Radar
Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Sperry Marine business unit is marking a major milestone in the history of the company’s leadership in radar technology with the celebration this year of the sixtieth anniversary of the launch of its first marine radar.
Sperry Marine’s heritage in marine radar dates back to August 1949, when the U.K.-based Decca Marine Group introduced its first commercial marine radar product, the Type 159. The Decca brand product lines later became incorporated with Sperry Marine under Northrop Grumman ownership.
“We are delighted to take advantage of this important milestone to honor the long tradition of engineering innovation and customer service embodied in our radar product lines,” said J. Nolasco DaCunha, vice president of Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine. “Over the past six decades, our R&D team has been responsible for important innovations in marine radar technology, including the first true motion radar in 1956, the first anti-collision radar in 1968, the first type-approved color radar in 1982 and the first computer-controlled automatic clutter suppression in 1998.”
DaCunha noted that the company has sold more than 150,000 marine radar sets in almost every country of the world since the first product appeared in 1949. “Our new-generation VisionMaster FT family of integrated bridge systems is the heir of this great tradition of innovation,” said DaCunha. “With VisionMaster FT, we have pushed the technology envelope even further, by integrating the radar more thoroughly and completely with electronic charts and other navigation sensors into a seamless bridge navigation network.”