Raytheon details plans for new missile defense system

Raytheon Company released a comprehensive plan to the U.S. Army on Monday for the next generation of air and missile defense radar.

The plan was released as part of a process to specifically define the requirements for a future lower tier air and missile defense sensor (LTAMDS).

“Raytheon’s solution for the LTAMDS is based on the more than $200 million that the company has invested in gallium nitride (GaN) powered active electronically scanned array (AESA) technology,” Ralph Acaba, vice president of integrated air and missile defense at Raytheon, said. “Raytheon showed it can quickly and affordably design, build, test and field a GaN-based AESA radar capable of defeating all threats when we exhibited a potential LTAMDS solution at the winter AUSA trade show this past March.”

The GaN-based AESA LTAMDS radar is designed to serve as a sensor on the integrated air and missile defense battle command system network. The system will be interoperable with NATO and retain backwards compatibility with the current Patriot system.

“Others may draw on lessons learned from the terminated medium extended air defense system (MEADS) project or repeatedly re-baselined naval radars,” Doug Burgess, director of integrated air and missile defense ASEA programs at Raytheon, said. “Raytheon’s LTAMDS solution builds upon successful programs such as the U.S. Navy’s next generation jammer and the air and missile defense radar. Our response, and our ASEA GaN radar rollout, at AUSA show shows there doesn’t need to be a wait of a decade or longer to get the sensor of the future. It will be available much, much sooner.”