The ASARS-2 radar was originally developed in the early 1980s by Hughes Aircraft, which was acquired by Raytheon in the late 1990s.
It has also been used to survey damage after various domestic disasters, including floods along the Mississippi River and the 1994 Northridge earthquake.
In the late 1990s, the ASARS Improvement Program (AIP) incorporated several performance and supportability enhancements into the system.
Making extensive use of commercial off-the-shelf technology, the AIP redesign increased on-board processing capability and upgraded the data link.
[1] Some features and technologies from the ASARS-2A system have been incorporated into the Raytheon Sentinel developed as the RAF's Airborne STand-Off Radar (ASTOR) aircraft.