The Army has awarded Raytheon Technologies [RTX] a $354 million contract for additional prototypes of the new Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) radar, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Work on the latest LTAMDS deal is expected to be completed by May 2025, with the Army obligating $104.8 million at the time of the award.

Raytheon’s LTAMDS radar. (Chris Navin Photographer, Advanced Media)

LTAMDS is the Army’s program to field a replacement for the Patriot defense system’s current radar.

Raytheon, which builds Patriot and its current radar, beat out Northrop Grumman [NOC] and Lockheed Martin [LMT] for LTAMDS in October 2019, receiving an initial deal worth upward of $384 million to deliver six production representative systems (Defense Daily, Oct. 17 2019).

Army officials have previously said they plan to receive the initial six prototype LTAMDS radars by September 2022, which is then likely to be followed by a production contract for 16 more radars (Defense Daily, May 16 2019). 

Raytheon’s LTAMDS radar is a 360-degree, Active Electronically Scanned Array capability that is powered by Gallium Nitride technology it has been developing over the last 20 years.

Company officials have previously estimated that LTAMDS will be worth at least $20 billion over the life of the program (Defense Daily, Oct. 24 2019).