On April 20, 2017, Lockheed Martin announced that the Long Range Discrimination Radar passed its preliminary design review, an important step in meeting the 2020 deployment deadline. The preliminary design review required Lockheed to achieve a Technology Readiness Level 6, meaning it has passed the developmental phase, and a Manufacturing Readiness Level 6, which means that the company is one step away from transitioning to the manufacturing stage. According to Lockheed Martin, the critical design review is scheduled for September, and the final design review for December.