Raytheon has built the first radar antenna array for the US Army’s next-generation radar Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS).
The LTAMDS will defeat advanced threats such as hypersonic weapons and is intended to eventually replace the existing radar of the army’s Patriot defence system.
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The completion comes after the US Army awarded a $384m contract to Raytheon to provide the LTAMDS in October last year following the company’s submission of its proposal last July.
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems business Integrated Air and Missile Defense vice-president Tom Laliberty said: “Raytheon’s employees and partners are focused on delivering the first LTAMDS by the army’s urgent material release date because we know how important expanded battlespace coverage and other capabilities are to the men and women in uniform.
“Because we invested in cutting-edge radar technology and advanced manufacturing capability, we will meet the customer’s critical milestones and get LTAMDS in the field rapidly.”
The new array is similar in size to the Patriot radar array and is expected to offer more than twice its performance.
It will be mounted on a precision-machined enclosure for integration and further evaluation after it completes extensive testing.
The enclosure makes use of advanced design and manufacturing techniques for accelerated manufacture to support the urgent materiel release programme of the US Army.
Raytheon worked with its suppliers, including Crane Aerospace & Electronics, Cummings Aerospace, IERUS Technologies across 42 states in building the LTAMDS solution.
Other suppliers involved are Kord Technologies, Mercury Systems and nLogic.
Raytheon’s radar array has been designed to be fully operable with the US Army’s existing architecture and expands battlespace coverage to protect soldiers from advanced air and missile threats.
