Scott Nicholas
Raytheon has received a $10 million contract modification from the Missile Defense Agency to continue to develop hardware and software that will incorporate gallium nitride technology into a ballistic missile defense radar system.
Raytheon said Thursday GaN technology will help boost the range, search and friend-or-foe determining capacity of the Army Navy/Transportable Radar Surveillance system, or AN/TPY-2.
AN/TPY-2 is designed with a forward-based mode that helps the radar to detect, track and engage ballistic missile threats shortly after launch and a terminal mode that allows the radar to discriminate ballistic missile targets during its descent.
The terminal mode also serves as the fire control radar for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense ballistic missile defense system.
Dave Gulla, vice president of Raytheon’s integrated defense systems mission systems and sensors business, said the addition of GaN technology will also help modernize the AN/TPY-2 to meet requirements for anti-ballistic missile capacity in “extreme” operational environments.
