Key Highlights:
- Raytheon Technology has recently engineered a Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor to detect potential missile threats
- The state-of-the-art sensor operates with great sensitivity and improved range designed to close blind spots helping track an attacking missile
- LTAMDS is engineered using gallium nitride that increases the power efficiency to identify and track fast-approaching enemy targets
Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor
Raytheon Technology has recently developed a Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS), also known as ‘Ghost Eye’ that can detect potential missile threats. The US army has identified several fast-evolving threats including advanced countermeasures, maneuverable re-entry vehicles, electronic-attack jamming, and long-range cruise missiles. These threats were identified in a report that was published in 2019 titled “Army Air and Missile Defense 2028”. To address these concerns, the army designed and engineered a new generation of highly sensitive, long-range, paradigm-changing ground radar systems. Raytheon–an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate–is one of the largest aerospace, intelligence services providers, and defense manufacturers in the world.
Operating Functions of the LTAMDS
LTAMDS is engineered by overlapping 120-degree arrays intended to seamlessly track approaching threats through a 360-degree protection envelope. The system will provide dramatically improved sensing capabilities and address complex integrated attacks along with maximizing the full kinematics of the Patriot missile set. LTAMDS–a state-of-the-art sensor–will mitigate the obsolescence challenges of the Patriot radar. A radar usually updates threats such as cruise missiles maneuver and reposition in flight making it difficult to track a target. However, the LTAMDS operates with much greater sensitivity, improved range, and has the ability to track smaller, faster-moving targets. It uses three fixed 120-degree arrays designed to close ‘blind spots’ making it possible to maintain a track as an attacking missile shifts course in flight.
Efficiency of the LTAMDS
The speed and precision of the electromagnetic pings in the LTAMDS bounce off a target and generate a return signal. This signal determines the fidelity, resolution, or accuracy of the rendering of the threat emerging from the radar return. This helps the LTAMDS to generate the shape, size, distance, and speed of an approaching threat. This technology was implemented by using a semiconducting material known as gallium nitride (GaN), which increases the power efficiency of radar modules. This helps to identify, discriminate, and track fast-approaching enemy targets. Since radio frequency travels at the speed of light, an approaching missile and its time travel can be identified using a computer algorithm. The algorithm can further be used to determine the exact distance of the missile, a myriad, or other potential threats.
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