Elizabeth Leigh
Raytheon has upgraded the main radar of the Patriot air and missile defense system with a gallium nitride-based active electronically scanned array.
The milestone moves the company closer to completing the full system set to be operational in early 2016, Raytheon said Thursday.
Ralph Acaba, vice president of integrated air and missile defense at Raytheon’s integrated defense systems business, indicated that using GaN-based AESA technology works to build the Patriot’s reliability and capability.
“Raytheon recognizes how important this capability is for the warfighter and is investing its own resources to bring Patriot’s GaN-based AESA radar to the point where it can enter engineering and manufacturing development with low risk,” he added.
The company said further updates will involve integration work on the subsystems and GaN transmit-receive modules on the array superstructure.
