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Raytheon has announced the successful live fire testing of the company’s Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) with the platform successfully acquiring, tracking, and intercepting a cruise missile.
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This milestone is the latest event in a series of ongoing development tests conducted by Raytheon in support of the US Army, for the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor radar which will culminate with an operational capability level by the end of the year.
Raytheon’s test consisted of a cruise missile surrogate flying a representative threat trajectory. The target was acquired and tracked by LTAMDS, its track data was then passed to the Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS, for launch command, and LTAMDS guided a PAC-3 missile to intercept.
Tom Laliberty, president of Land and Air Defense Systems at Raytheon, welcomed the news of this successful test, saying, “Seeing LTAMDS come to life is not only gratifying to the scores of experts who designed and developed it, but it reaffirms the commitment we made to deliver this exceptional radar to air defenders around the globe. We’re now closer than ever to doing just that.”
All six radars under the October 2019 contract have completed production and are undergoing simultaneous testing at various government and Raytheon test sites, conducting integration and test activities in parallel.
“When the LTAMDS contract was awarded four years ago, this was what we told the Army we would deliver: the world’s most advanced and highly capable air and missile defense radar,” Laliberty added.
Following the recently completed contractor verification test, events will continue throughout 2023. Rigorous testing will progress in 2024, including robust environmental and mobility qualification, and expanded system of system testing, leading up to full operational capability in the calendar year.
LTAMDS is the next-generation air and missile defence radar for the US Army, providing a 360-degree, active electronically scanned array radar, powered by Raytheon-manufactured Gallium Nitride, LTAMDS provides dramatically more performance against the range of threats, from manned and unmanned aircraft to cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and hypersonics.
