SPY-2

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The AN/SPY-2 radar is an add-on to the AEGIS battle management system radar; it gives new capabilities needed for ballistic missile defense that are not part of the basic SPY-1|AN/SPY-1 main AEGIS radar. It is the engagement control radar for the RIM-161 Standard SM-3 missile.

Known as the High Power Discriminator (HPD), it gives long-range detection, tracking and discrimination of advanced theater ballistic missile (TBM) threats.^[1] Radar targets associated with such threats are very different in speed, geometry, and distance than the aircraft and cruise missile targets for which AN/SPY-1 is optimized.

While it will physically be mounted with the AN/SPY-1 on Burke-class or Kongo-class destroyer or a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, other radars, such as the Army transportable TPY-2|AN/TPY-2 or the Navy's sea-based X-band (SBX) ship used in BMD development, have some common characteristics. Other electro-optical MASINT#Space-based Staring Infrared Sensors|sensors, while not radars, complement the BMD mission by detecting launch, such as the present Defense Support Program or the future Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS).

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