Lockheed Martin [LMT] will participate in a demonstration this spring for the Army’s Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor program where officials will look to test possible replacements for the Patriot radar system, a company spokesperson told Defense Daily
Thursday.
The “sense-off” demonstration will take place over two weeks at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico as the Army ramps up its potentially multi-billion dollar search for a new radar to integrate into its future air and missile defense network.
“Lockheed Martin can confirm it has been selected and plans to participate in the U.S. Army’s Sense Off demonstration. We look forward to continuing to support the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor mission and future capabilities based on our proven Active Electronically Scanned Array and Gallium Nitride-fielded technology,” the Lockheed Martin spokesperson said in a statement to Defense Daily.
Lockheed Martin and Raytheon [RTN] were both awarded contracts last October to advance in a LTAMDS development program and move into the technology maturation phase (Defense Daily, October 2018).
The Army’s “sense-off” this spring is considered separate from that development effort, and will include vendors invited to demonstrate radar capabilities that meet current requirements.
Army officials in October said a 360-degree sensor, long considered an LTAMDS benchmark, would no longer be a threshold requirement for the program (Defense Daily, Oct. 2018).
Program leaders instead cited a need for the new radar to be easily integrated with the Army’s future air and missile defense network currently being developed by Northrop Grumman [NOC].
The Patriot air and missile defense radar is built by Raytheon and was first fielded in the 1980s.