Just four months after the initial contract award, the U.S. Army’s Sentinel A4 radar program already achieved several key milestones. In January, the U.S Army approved the program’s Systems Requirement Review (SRR), Systems Functional Review (SFR), and the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for one of the subsystems.
«Traditionally, the SRR and PDR take place several months apart, but thanks to Lockheed Martin’s preparation, investment and our technically mature radar solution, we are able to support the Army’s need to field the system more rapidly», said Mark Mekker, director, Lockheed Martin Army radar programs. «We have achieved every milestone while working on a very aggressive timeline in order to deliver the radar on schedule».
Lockheed Martin’s open scalable radar architecture is the cornerstone of the radar system’s design and will allow for future upgrades that not only extend the life of the radar, but address threats to our warfighters that will evolve over the next 40 years.
The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin a $281-million contract to develop the Sentinel A4 system in September 2019. The new air and missile defense radar will provide improved capability against cruise missiles, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), rotary wing and fixed wing, and rocket, artillery, and mortar threats.
The radar will also provide enhanced surveillance, detection, and classification capabilities against current and emerging aerial threats in order to protect U.S. Army maneuver formations and high-value static assets to include: command and control nodes, tactical assembly areas and geo-political centers.
Proven Radar Experience
With broad and deep experience developing and delivering ground-based radar solutions to our customers, our high-performing, high-reliability, Solid State Radar (SSR) systems specialize in counter target acquisition, early warning, situational awareness, and integrated air and missile defense. Our radars are designed with the highest degree of commonality and fully integrated SSR systems. They can operate in all environments, are available in highly mobile configurations, and are deployed worldwide. It’s why Lockheed Martin’s ground-based radars are the choice of more than 45 nations on six continents.
Raytheon Company completed the first round of testing of the first partially populated radar antenna array for the U.S. Army’s Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS. The milestone comes less than five months after the U.S. Army selected Raytheon to build LTAMDS, a next-generation radar that will defeat advanced threats like hypersonic weapons.
Raytheon completes first round of testing for new Lower Tier Air & Missile Defense radar
«Concluding these initial tests brings Raytheon one step closer to putting LTAMDS into the hands of service members», said Tom Laliberty, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems business. «Raytheon and our supplier partners continue to make the right investments in people, technology and manufacturing capability to ensure we meet the U.S. Army’s Urgent Materiel Release».
The testing consisted of calibrating LTAMDS primary antenna array in an indoor, climate controlled test range, and evaluating its performance against simulated targets. With testing complete, the array is being mounted on a precision-machined enclosure for integration and further evaluation. It will then commence testing at an outdoor range against real-world targets.
LTAMDS consists of a primary antenna array on the front of the radar, and two secondary arrays on the rear. The radar antennas work together to enable operators to simultaneously detect and engage multiple threats from any direction, ensuring there are no blind spots on the battlefield. LTAMDS’ primary array is roughly the same size as the Patriot radar array, but provides more than twice Patriot’s performance. While it is designed for the U.S. Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense system, LTAMDS will also be able to preserve previous Patriot investments.
Raytheon is working closely with hundreds of suppliers across 42 states, including a core team playing a strategic role in building the LTAMDS solution. They are:
Raytheon Company finished building the first radar antenna array for the U.S. Army’s Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS). Raytheon completed the work less than 120 days after the U.S. Army selected Raytheon to build LTAMDS, a next-generation radar that will defeat advanced threats like hypersonic weapons.
Raytheon’s LTAMDS design is a simultaneous 360-degree, Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar powered by the company’s Gallium Nitride (GaN) circuits, which strengthen the radar signal and enhance its sensitivity
«Raytheon’s employees and partners are focused on delivering the first LTAMDS by the Army’s Urgent Material Release date because we know how important expanded battlespace coverage and other capabilities are to the men and women in uniform», said Tom Laliberty, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems business. «Because we invested in cutting-edge radar technology and advanced manufacturing capability, we will meet the customer’s critical milestones and get LTAMDS in the field rapidly».
The newly built primary array, similar in size to the Patriot radar array, will provide more than twice its performance. Following extensive testing, the radar array will be mounted on a precision-machined enclosure for integration and further evaluation. The enclosure utilizes advanced design and manufacturing techniques for accelerated manufacture to support the U.S. Army’s Urgent Materiel Release program.
Raytheon is working closely with hundreds of suppliers across 42 states, including a core team playing a strategic role in building the LTAMDS solution. They are:
BAE Systems was awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the next generation of mixed-signal electronics that could enable new Department of Defense (DoD) applications including high capacity, robust communications, radars, and precision sensors, and lead to solutions that enhance situational awareness and survivability for the warfighter.
DARPA selects BAE Systems to build powerful next-generation advanced electronics
Recognizing that the DoD has performance demands that far exceed the capabilities of the commercial world in terms of speed, fidelity, capacity, and precision, DARPA created the Technologies for Mixed mode Ultra Scaled Integrated Circuits (T-MUSIC) program to enable disruptive Radio Frequency (RF) mixed-mode technologies by developing high performance RF analog electronics integrated with advanced digital electronics on the same wafer.
The next-generation capabilities that could be made possible with this program include a combination of wide spectral coverage, high resolution, large dynamic range, and high information processing bandwidth. These capabilities, which can cut through the electronic signal clutter, provide leap-forward performance that is mission critical as services rely on electronic sensors in highly congested environments. The new developments could be integrated into electronic warfare, communications, precision munitions, and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms.
«T-MUSIC will incorporate analog and digital signals on a single chip for high-performance data converters and digital processing and intelligence», said Chris Rappa, product line director for Radio Frequency, Electronic Warfare, and Advanced Electronics at BAE Systems’ FAST Labs. «The advanced electronics we are developing under the T-MUSIC program could create the foundation for greatly enhanced Department of Defense capabilities in advanced RF sensors and high capacity communications».
As part of the $8 million contract, BAE Systems FAST Labs research and development team – working closely with program foundries – will design and develop wafer-scale technology on a silicon foundry platform that can enable U.S.-based production of next-generation DoD electronics.
The T-MUSIC contract adds to BAE Systems’ advanced electronics portfolio and is based on many years of investment on various programs with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), U.S. Army, and DARPA, including DARPA’s CONverged Collaborative Elements for RF Task Operations (CONCERTO) and DARPA’s Radio Frequency Field Programmable Gate Arrays (RF-FPGA) programs. Work for the contract will be completed at the company’s facilities in Merrimack, New Hampshire; Lexington, Massachusetts; and Manassas, Virginia.
The world’s latest generation solid-state radar technology, formerly known as Lockheed Martin’s Solid State Radar (LM SSR), has been designated as AN/SPY-7(V)1 by the United States government. The designation of AN/SPY-7(V)1 is a direct reflection of the maturity and capability of Lockheed Martin’s solid-state radar technology.
Lockheed Martin’s Solid State Radar has been designated as AN/SPY-7(V)1 by the United States government. SPY-7 and Aegis Ashore will defend against ballistic missile threats and provide continuous protection of Japan
The Japanese Ministry of Defense selected AN/SPY-7(V)1 for two planned Aegis Ashore installations in 2018. Additionally, variants of AN/SPY-7(V)1 will be used by the Royal Canadian Navy for the Canadian Surface Combatant program and the Spanish Navy for the upcoming F-110 frigate program.
«Lockheed Martin’s solid state solution meets the mission now and is flexible to adapt to the evolving threats of the future», said Paul Lemmo, vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin. «This new designation solidifies our ability to provide the most technically advanced capabilities our warfighters require».
AN/SPY-7(V)1 is a modular and scalable solid state radar, allowing for continuous surveillance and protection. It will be fully integrated with the Aegis Combat System, providing advanced technology for future ship classes.
With 50 years of constant evolution and innovation, Lockheed Martin has a trusted history of producing, integrating and delivering radars and combat systems. Lockheed Martin and the Aegis Combat System continue to keep pace with evolving integrated air and missile threats, introducing new capabilities to create the latest generation of advanced solid state technologies, integrated with the Aegis system, to provide world-class defense and ensure future safety and security.
Raytheon Company has been selected to provide the U.S. Army with their next generation, 360-degree capable radar – the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS). Raytheon will receive more than $384 million to deliver six production representative units of the advanced LTAMDS radar under an Other Transactional Authority U.S. Army agreement. LTAMDS is a new radar that will ultimately replace the current U.S. Army’s Patriot radars. It will operate on the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) network.
The U.S. Army’s new LTAMDS radar design, unveiled in a Raytheon mock-up
«Our clean-sheet approach to LTAMDS reinforces Raytheon’s position as the world’s premier air and missile defense radar capability provider», said Ralph Acaba, President of Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. «Patriot is the world’s leading, combat-proven air and missile defense system, and 17 nations have procured 240 radars from Raytheon. With the U.S. Army’s approval, these Patriot partners will have the opportunity to add Active Electronic Scanned Array, 360-degree capability to their inventory, extending the life of their systems for many decades».
Raytheon’s winning LTAMDS solution is a 360-degree, Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar powered by Raytheon-manufactured Gallium Nitride (GaN), a substance that strengthens the radar signal and enhances its sensitivity. Over the past two decades, Raytheon has invested significantly in AESA GaN technology and advanced manufacturing capability, positioning the company as the global leader in advanced GaN technology and product development.
«For decades, we have invested in radar technology to address our customer’s most pressing needs. As a result, we’ve developed the ability and capacity to provide the Army an advanced capability on an accelerated timeline», said Tom Laliberty, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems. «Our in-house advanced manufacturing capability and strong supplier network will enable us to meet the Army’s urgent material release requirement».
Raytheon assembled a team of suppliers who played a strategic role in developing Raytheon’s LTAMDS solution. They are:
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $281 million contract by the United States Army to develop the Sentinel A4 radar system.
U.S. Army awards Lockheed Martin contract to develop Sentinel A4 radar
Sentinel A4 is a high-performance modification of the Sentinel A3 (AN/MPQ-64A3) air and missile defense radar that will provide updates to improve the existing Sentinel capability against cruise missiles, unmanned aerial systems, rotary wing and fixed wing threats.
The new Sentinel A4 radar will provide improved surveillance, detection, and classification capabilities against current and emerging aerial threats in order to protect Army maneuver formations and high value static assets to include: command and control nodes, tactical assembly areas and geo-political centers. This needed capability will help protect our warfighters for the next 40 years.
«By leveraging our open scalable radar architecture and production efforts, we believe we provide the lowest risk and best value solution for the U.S. Army that will help protect our warfighters for years to come», said Doctor Rob Smith, vice president and general manager for Lockheed Martin’s Radar and Sensor Systems. «We have fielded numerous tactical Gallium Nitride (GaN) based radars beginning with the delivery of the TPS-77 Multi Role Radar to Latvia in 2018 and we are under contract with the Army to insert GaN into the Q-53 system».
Lockheed Martin, Ball Aerospace, and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. were awarded a $7.2 million prototype agreement by the Defense Innovation Unit to develop a new Multi-Band, Multi-Mission (MBMM) prototype phased array as part of a broader initiative to modernize the existing Air Force Satellite Control Network and bring new technology faster to warfighters. MBMM enables multiple satellites to simultaneously connect with a single array antenna over multiple frequencies, a significant performance improvement compared to traditional single contact parabolic dishes.
Lockheed Martin, Ball and Kratos team on Advanced Phased Array for Air Force
The Lockheed Martin team is building prototype transmit and receive Electronically Steerable Arrays (ESA). Each array uses Ball’s advanced phased array technologies and supports L- and S-band frequencies initially. Signal processing is accomplished with Kratos’ digital Intermediate Frequency (IF) technology and cloud-enabled quantumRadio.
«MBMM is a smarter way to quickly and affordably scale satellite transmission while lowering long-term maintenance costs for the Air Force», said Maria Demaree, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Mission Solutions. «Today, when a parabolic antenna goes down, it can take days to repair; with MBMM, it will take hours and won’t take the entire site offline – that’s a tremendous advantage».
Extensive industry research comparing the costs of parabolic antennas to phased arrays over time show that while parabolic antennas have a lower upfront cost, they become much more expensive to maintain. Phased arrays avoid the mechanical maintenance and keyhole effects of parabolic antennas while providing graceful degradation and electronic agility in matching aperture performance to constellation demands.
«One electronically steered antenna can replace multiple dishes, enabling better performance, connectivity and affordability», said Rob Freedman, vice president and general manager, Tactical Solutions, Ball Aerospace.
«Software modems deployed in virtual machines gives MBMM an advantage because it is easy to scale signal processing on a much faster timeline than previously», said Frank Backes, senior vice president of Kratos Federal Space.
Future operational MBMM systems will offer new cyber resilience while reducing long-term sustainment costs for the Air Force. MBMM may eventually support multiple orbits from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) and can perform multiple missions at the same time, including Command & Control (C2), launch pad and ascent operations, radar and mission data transmission. The Lockheed Martin/Ball team is one of several teams building prototypes for the government.
Lockheed Martin completed a rigorous Critical Design Review (CDR) on September 28 with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) for the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), demonstrating compliance to all technical performance measures and requirements. The radar system will support a layered ballistic missile defense strategy to protect the U.S. homeland from ballistic missile attacks.
Lockheed Martin’s new SSRIS in Moorestown, New Jersey, provides significant risk reduction for the development of the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) and future solid state radar systems. Lockheed Martin made the investment to build the new test site (Photo courtesy Lockheed Martin)
The MDA awarded the $784 million contract to Lockheed Martin in 2015 to develop, build and test LRDR, and the company is on track on an aggressive schedule to deliver the radar to Clear, Alaska in 2020. Teams from Lockheed Martin, MDA Sensors Directorate and the Command and Control, Battle Management, and Communications or C2BMC have worked interfaces closely to ensure seamless integration.
Successfully executing CDR validates that the LRDR system is ready to proceed into fabrication, demonstration, and test and that the hardware and software component have achieved Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 and Manufacturing Readiness Level 7.
With the completion of CDR, the program now begins the start of low rate manufacturing which began in October. In preparation for full rate manufacturing starting in mid-2018, Lockheed Martin will be utilizing production hardware in combination with prototype systems, tactical back-end processing equipment as well as tactical software to demonstrate system performance in an operational environment to achieve system TRL 7. Lockheed Martin will be performing a series of tests in the Solid State Radar Integration Site (SSRIS) including a closed loop satellite track test.
«We remain committed to support the MDA’s Ballistic Missile Defense and Homeland Defense Missions», said Chandra Marshall, LRDR program director, Lockheed Martin. «I am extremely proud of the team for their dedication and commitment to the successful execution of the LRDR program. This team has achieved every milestone, including this CDR, on schedule since contract award in 2015».
Marshall continued, «I am extremely pleased with the progress the entire LRDR team has made in the two years since contract award. With the success of CDR, LRDR is on track for Initial Operating Capability or IOC in 2020».
In addition to CDR, Lockheed Martin conducted a Facilities Design Review in October for the LRDR equipment shelter design. Lockheed Martin will run a full and open competition for the construction of the equipment shelter in Clear, Alaska and will begin construction of the shelter in the first half of 2019. The MDA team is preparing the site for Radar System Installation and checkout mobilization, constructing the Mission Control Facility and starting the foundation for the LRDR equipment shelter.
Similar to Lockheed Martin’s Space Fence radar system, LRDR is a high-powered S-Band radar incorporating solid-state Gallium Nitride (GaN) components. LRDR adds the capability of discriminating threats at extreme distances using the inherent wideband capability of the hardware coupled with advanced software algorithms.
LRDR is a strategic national asset of the MDA’s Ballistic Missile Defense System and will provide 24/7/365 acquisition, tracking and discrimination data to enable defense systems to lock on and engage ballistic missile threats, a capability that stems from Lockheed Martin’s decades of experience in creating ballistic missile defense systems for the U.S. and allied governments.
Lockheed Martin is well positioned to provide low risk, scalable radar solutions that address critical homeland defense needs; providing a persistent capability to keep pace with evolving threats, delivering unmatched discrimination capability in the Pacific architecture, and increasing the defensive capability of Ground Based Interceptors.
Work on LRDR is primarily performed in New Jersey, Alaska, Alabama, Florida and New York.
As a proven world leader in systems integration and development of air and missile defense systems and technologies, Lockheed Martin delivers high-quality missile defense solutions that protect citizens, critical assets and deployed forces from current and future threats. The company’s experience spans radar and signal processing, missile design and production, hit-to-kill capabilities, infrared seekers, command and control/battle management, and communications, precision pointing and tracking optics, as well as threat-representative targets for missile defense tests.
The Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) is a high-powered S-Band radar incorporating solid-state Gallium Nitride (GaN) components capable of discriminating threats at extreme distances. LRDR is a strategic national asset of the Missile Defense Agency’s Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) and will provide 24/7/365 acquisition, tracking and discrimination data to enable separate defense systems to lock on and engage ballistic missile threats (Image courtesy Lockheed Martin)
