Anna Forrester
Raytheon continues work to upgrade the radar component of the Patriot Air and Missile Defense System with a gallium nitride-based active electronically scanned array to provide a 360-degree radar coverage.
The company said Tuesday the GaN-based AESA radar works to help the Patriot system protect U.S. and allied forces against attacks that come from multiple directions.
“The Raytheon-developed GaN-based AESA radar builds on the more than $150 million invested in GaN technology and will be a simple upgrade for the more than 220 Patriot fire units fielded by the U.S. and the 12 other Patriot partner nations,” said Ralph Acaba, vice president of integrated air and missile defense at Raytheon’s integrated defense systems business.
He added that the updated radar will be available for export.
Construction is ongoing on a full-size GaN-based AESA main panel, which Raytheon said moves the program closer to the production of a full-scale, operational main array demonstrator by early 2016.
The company noted that the team has already completed a rear-panel array, main array structure and radar shelter and tested the cooling subsystem.
