Raytheon has given the US Missile Defense Agency a new radar, the most advanced of its kind, that it says can support the difficult mission of defending against hypersonic weapons.
The radar is one of the latest examples of how the US is working to strengthen its air defenses against more advanced threats like hypersonic weapons, which are nearly impossible to intercept with current systems.
Raytheon, an RTX Corporation business, announced on Monday the delivery of its first upgraded AN/TPY-2 missile defense radar featuring a Gallium Nitride (GaN) populated array.
These radars are able to detect, track, and discriminate ballistic missiles in multiple phases of flight. The latest upgrade improves the sensitivity and range of the radar and expands its surveillance capabilities.
“The radar also features the latest CX6 high-performance computing software that offers more precise target discrimination and electronic attack protection,” Raytheon said in a release.
Some experts have noted the game-changing use of GaN semiconductor technology in enhancing radars, radio frequency sensing, and other communication platforms. Multiple big players in the defense industry have been working on GaN-based capabilities, especially for upgrading sensors and weapons systems.
Last fall, Raytheon began production of the GaN-empowered Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense System (LTAMDS) with the Army, designing it to ultimately replace the current Patriot missile defense system radars.
Raytheon’s new version of the AN/TPY-2 is the most advanced it’s built, said Sam Deneke, president of Air and Space Defense Systems at Raytheon, per the release. “As demand increases for missile defense of the homeland, the AN/TPY-2 radar is ready to meet the mission.”
US military officials have been pushing for more capabilities to defend against hypersonics for years now. They’re daunting weapons due to a hypersonic missile’s ability to fly low, fast, and maneuver along unpredictable flight paths that make them far more difficult to intercept than already challenging ballistic missiles that fly the predictable parabolic arcs.
Both China and Russia, key US rivals, possess hypersonic missiles in their arsenals.
US-made air defenses have defeated Russia’s advanced Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missile, sometimes questionably touted as hypersonic weaponry. But defending against weapons more accurately identified by that name, such as China’s DF-17 missile equipped with a hypersonic glide vehicle or Russia’s Zircon scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missile, could prove more difficult, though Ukraine has claimed to have defeated the Zircon.
Though the weapons may not be unstoppable, they represent a much more challenging threat, and this technology is continuing to advance.
China’s expansion of its missile arsenal has raised concerns about the vulnerability of US forces and strategic allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region. Washington lawmakers and US military leaders have repeatedly said that American forces lack the active and passive defenses needed to defend against a substantial Chinese missile bombardment that could include hypersonic weapons. But efforts are underway to strengthen these defenses.
Last year, for instance, the US and Japan announced plans to jointly develop a hypersonic missile defense system as part of a Glide Phase Interceptor (GPI) Cooperative Development (GCD) Project Arrangement that aims to intercept a hypersonic weapon in its glide phase of flight.
And more recently, the Trump administration began pursuing a new “Iron Dome for America,” now called the “Golden Dome,” because, as the president said in a January executive order, “the threat of attack by ballistic, hypersonic, and cruise missiles, and other advanced aerial attacks, remains the most catastrophic threat facing the United States.”
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