Raytheon’s New Patriot Missile System Radar Cleared For Production
Raytheon has announced that its Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor radar has been cleared to enter production by the United States Army, following a series of successful flight tests.
The Army granted Milestone C approval to begin production after eight successful flight tests of increasing complexity, with Raytheon saying the tests stressed the radar and proved its capabilities against real-world threats ahead of the decision. Approval also makes the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) program an officially designated program of record.
LTAMDS will replace the AN/SPY-65A radar currently used by the U.S. Army’s MIM-104 Patriot surface to air missile systems. The three active electronically scanned arrays used by the radar provide better performance while retaining the same radar unit size, and the LTAMDS will be integrated into the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense system, with all systems connected to the system to be able to share targeting data in order to defend against incoming aerial threats.
“This is an unprecedented achievement, with a development program of this magnitude transitioning from prototype to production and deployment at an accelerated pace,” said Tom Laliberty, president of Land and Air Defense Systems at Raytheon. “Our collaborative partnership with the U.S. Army and our broad base of industry partners has driven the historic execution of the LTAMDS program in record time, delivering advanced 360-degree integrated air and missile defense capability.”
Raytheon says it has recently completed deliveries of the first six LTAMDS radars ordered in 2019, with the seventh and eight radars to be delivered later this year. The company is now building radars for the Army and those Poland ordered in an August 2024 contract, adding that it plans to increase production rates to 12 radars a year due to “global demand”. While the U.S. Army and Poland are the only two clients to have ordered LTAMDS radars to date, Raytheon says over a dozen countries have requested briefings on the radar’s capabilities.