ANDOVER, Mass., Feb. 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Air and missile
defense is about to get better. Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN)
recently completed a series of company-funded milestones to upgrade
the combat-proven Patriot Air and Missile Defense System. The
projected upgrade delivers 360-degree capability and keeps Patriot
ahead of increasingly more sophisticated threats, such as aircraft,
drones, and cruise and ballistic missiles.
The Patriot radar main array was enhanced with gallium nitride-
(GaN) based, Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA)
technology. The same Raytheon engineers who completed those
milestones are currently constructing a GaN-based AESA, full-size,
main panel radar array. They are on track to have a full-scale main
array prototype operational in early 2016 – just 24 months after
the company started building it.
"Raytheon has invested more than $150
million in GaN technology and learned invaluable lessons
while building our GaN-based AESA full-scale prototype," said
Ralph Acaba, vice president of
Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon's Integrated Defense
Systems business. "This ensures Raytheon is able to rapidly
develop, build, test and deliver a combat-ready GaN-based AESA
radar that gives Patriot 360-degree capability."
In 2015, Raytheon built a GaN-based AESA rear-panel array
and integrated it with a radar for potential use in Patriot, using
existing and recently modernized back-end processing hardware and
software. The radar then tracked targets of opportunity, leveraging
a seamless 360-degree view.
"Raytheon's GaN-based AESA radar will outmatch future threats
for the same reason today's Patriot is able to outmatch current
threats – because it is designed to be upgraded and we have a
growth path for the system," said Tim
Glaeser, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile
Defense Business Development at Raytheon's Integrated Defense
Systems business.
The recently accomplished AESA GaN milestones
include:
- Completing construction of the AESA main array structure.
- Constructing the AESA arrays' radar shelter.
- Integrating receivers and a radar digital processor into the
radar shelter.
- Delivering the shelter to Raytheon's test facility in
Pelham, N.H.
- Testing the radar's cooling sub-system.
Raytheon's GaN-based AESA radar will work with future open
architecture (such as the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle
Command System) and retains backwards compatibility with the
current Patriot Engagement Control Station. It will also be
fully interoperable with NATO.
The Raytheon-built GaN-based AESA radar uses three antenna
arrays mounted on a mobile radar shelter to provide 360-degrees of
radar coverage. The main AESA array is a bolt-on replacement for
the current Patriot antenna. The GaN-based AESA array measures
roughly 9' wide x 13' tall, and is oriented toward the primary
threat. The new rear panel arrays are a quarter the size of the
main array, and let the system look behind and to the sides of the
main array to offer Patriot the ability to engage threats in all
directions.
Experience Raytheon's 360-GaN Based AESA Patriot from the
radar's perspective
Raytheon developed a new virtual reality app that puts users on
a New England hilltop. It allows them to scan the horizon from the
viewpoint of Raytheon's new 360-degree, missile-defense radar. The
app requires a Google Cardboard viewer, a simple device that allows
mobile phone users to see specially created, interactive
3-D images. Raytheon, which offers free Google Cardboard viewers,
previously used the technology to show the assembly of the first
full-scale array.
About Global Patriot Solutions
Raytheon's Global Patriot Solutions is the most advanced
portfolio of air and missile defense technologies in the world,
providing comprehensive protection against a full range of advanced
threats, including aircraft, tactical ballistic missiles, cruise
missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles. Patriot is continually
upgraded and enhanced to leverage the latest technology. Thirteen
nations depend on Patriot as the foundation for their defense.
About GaN
Raytheon has been leading the innovation and development of GaN
for 15 years and has invested more than $150
million to get this latest technology in the hands of the
warfighter faster and at lower cost and risk. Raytheon has
demonstrated the maturity of the technology in a number of ways,
including exceeding the reliability requirement for insertion into
the production of military systems.
About Raytheon
Raytheon Company, with 2014 sales of $23
billion and 61,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and
innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and
cybersecurity markets throughout the world. With a history of
innovation spanning 93 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art
electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in
the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications
and intelligence systems, as well as cybersecurity and a broad
range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in
Waltham, Mass. For more about
Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter
@Raytheon
Media Contact
Mike Nachshen
+1.520.269.5697
idspr@raytheon.com
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SOURCE Raytheon Company