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2016-11-01

The Stronger, Re-Engineered Patriot Radar

The Patriot 360-degree capability passing critical milestone

Two years after Raytheon set out to revolutionise one of its flagship products, the company is bringing the first full-sized version of the radar to the Association of the United States Army Winter Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.

The point of the display is simple, said Doug Burgess, Raytheon’s program manager for Patriot Active Electronically Scanned Array radars. The company wants to prove how far it has come in building a radar that is more powerful, more efficient and cheaper to run and maintain.

In short, a radar to defeat the ever-changing threats the US and its allies will face for decades to come. “It’s here and now,” Burgess said. “It’s not something where it needs to take 10 years to develop, and the technology is in the infant stages. It’s ready now.”

The Patriot upgrade draws its power from two key technologies: Active Electronically Scanned Array -This changes the way the Patriot radar searches the sky. Instead of shining a powerful, single transmitter through many lenses, the new array uses many smaller transmitters, each with its own control. The result is a system that is not only more flexible, with an adjustable beam for many different missions, but also more reliable. It still works even if some of the transmitters do not.

Gallium Nitride - This is the material used to build the radar’s powerful new circuits. It is a powerful semiconductor that uses energy efficiently to amplify the radar’s high-power radio frequencies. Raytheon has spent more than 15 years and $200 million pioneering gallium nitride technology, and has built gallium nitride circuits for a number of products including jammers and other radars.

Eyes All Around

The full-size radar is an important step on a path toward a Patriot system that can simultaneously see all 360 degrees of the battlefield.

Raytheon has designed a 360-degree radar that fits into the current configuration of the Patriot system. It includes the main array facing front and two smaller “quarter-panel” arrays facing the rear. Early testing of the design at Raytheon’s radar range in New Hampshire has been successful.

What makes that design possible is gallium nitride’s efficiency.

In 1999, within the pristine walls of Raytheon’s acclaimed microchip foundry in Andover, Massachusetts, engineers covered from head to toe in white protective suits first began their research into a promising new technology: Gallium Nitride.

The substance, often referred to simply as GaN for its chemical symbols, can be used to amplify radio energy for radars, jammers and other devices. “When Raytheon began investing in GaN 15 years ago, we weren’t sure of its full potential.

It took multiple studies over many years to mature GaN into the robust technology discriminator we have today,” said Paul Ferraro, vice president of Advanced Technology Programs at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems.

Today, Advanced Technology Programs is in various stages of research with more than 100 promising technologies. “We are charged with creating a pipeline of technologies to fuel business growth for years to come,” Ferraro said. “GaN is the biggest winner we’ve delivered so far.”

Although powerful, the new array remains true to the Patriot legacy and can even be integrated into any of the more than 220 already-fielded systems that are owned by 13 countries around the world.

New Digital Radar Exciter and Waveform Generator

The world’s newest, lower-tier air and missile defense radar just completed a critical milestone, moving it one step closer to testing in an operational environment.

Raytheon Company engineers successfully integrated a new digital radar exciter and waveform generator for the company’s proposed Gallium Nitride-powered Active Electronically Scanned Array upgrade to the Patriot Air and Missile Defense radar. Beyond the GaN-based AESA radar, Raytheon has also installed and tested the digital exciter and waveform generator in the currently fielded Patriot radar.

All radars have an exciter and waveform generator; the two elements work together to create the energy and frequencies transmitted by the radar antenna. Just like an engine is essential for the operation of a car, a radar cannot function unless it has an exciter and waveform generator.

Raytheon’s new digital exciter and waveform generator are combined in a single box roughly the size and shape of a large microwave oven. They allow engineers to create new radar frequencies and waveforms via simple software updates. The ability to make these changes via software updates is the equivalent of being able to transform a car’s engine from a four-cylinder motor for city driving to a 12-cylinder engine for the Autobahn.

“The threats militaries will face in 10 or 20 years will be very different than the ones they are facing today,” said Ralph Acaba, vice president of Integrated Air and Missile Defense at Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems business. “The new technology will enable engineers to rapidly upgrade and adapt the GaN-based AESA radar as well as the current Patriot radar to defeat new and emerging threats such as ballistic and cruise missiles, aircraft and drones.”

A number of current and expected future Patriot Air and Missile Defense System partner nations in Europe and Asia have expressed interest in acquiring GaN-based AESA. The GaN-based AESA technology also meets Germany’s requirements for the German Taktisches Luftverteidigungssystem, or TLVS, tactical air and missile defence system.

Raytheon’s proposed new digital exciter and waveform generator replace more than 15 individual components in the current Patriot radar, which significantly reduces lifecycle costs and increases Patriot’s already-high reliability. It also uses a slotted-card design, which will enable soldiers in the field to replace circuit cards in a matter of minutes.

Raytheon’s GaN-based AESA main array is a critical step on the path to a GaN-based AESA radar with full 360-degree capability. Raytheon rolled out its GaN-based AESA prototype at the Winter Association of the US Army trade show in March, 2016. Raytheon demonstrated 360-degree capability with its GaN-based AESA pilot array in 2015.

Raytheon’s proposed GaN-based AESA Patriot radar will work with the Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System and other open architecture. It will retain backwards compatibility with the current Patriot Engagement Control Station and will maintain full interoperability with NATO.

Limitless capabilities

A semiconductor material that can efficiently amplify high power radio frequency signals at microwave frequencies, GaN produces five times the power of gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology, which is still used in concert with GaN. Raytheon continues to invest in the development of both GaAs and GaN at the Radio Frequency Components (RFC) Foundry in Andover.

GaN also enables Raytheon to reduce the size of a system’s antenna, which provides flexibility, improves transportability, and reduces acquisition and lifecycle costs without sacrificing performance.

In 2013, Raytheon was honoured by Office of the Secretary of Defense for successfully completing a Defense Production Act Title III GaN production improvement program, culminating more than a decade of government and Raytheon investment in GaN RF circuit technology.

Raytheon also demonstrated that GaN technology reliability exceeded the requirement for insertion into production military systems. This maturation of GaN resulted in a *Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) production capability of “8,” the highest level obtained by any organization in the defense industry for this technology•

*MRL is a measure used by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and many of the world’s major companies to assess the maturity of manufacturing readiness.

Reference Text/ Photo: www.raytheon.com

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