Raytheon‘s [RTN] 14-month early delivery of a crucial new cooling equipment unit (CEU) will give the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) a deployment-ready AN/TPY-2 ballistic missile defense radar, company officials said.
The AN/TPY-2 is a high resolution, mobile, rapidly deployable X-band radar that provides long-range acquisition, precision track, and discrimination of all classes of ballistic missiles. It is integral to the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) MDA is developing.
With the early-delivery CEU combined with an MDA contract for AN/TPY-2 logistics support, the agency potentially could shift resources, if required, to meet demand for the radar.
“We’ve delivered a crucial component for the TPY-2 that will enable MDA, if they choose, to turn a test radar into a fully-deployable system,” Jim Bedingfield, director, Missile Defense Global Integrated Sensors Business development, told Defense Daily.
Two of the AN/TPY-2 radars were successfully used in late October 2012 in MDA’s largest and most complex tests.
The CEU is an 18-wheeler-sized unit that cools the AN/TPY-2’s antenna and evenly distributes power throughout the radar. It replaces a 12-year-old CEU that was built as a proof-of-design.
The new CEU provides “more reliability and robustness,” Bedingfield said. Think of iPhone technology three years ago and compare it to today’s technology, he added.
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| AN/TPY-2 Radar Photo: Raytheon |
The radar operates in terminal mode and in forward-based mode. In terminal mode, the AN/TPY-2 serves as the search, detect, track, discrimination and fire-control radar for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system, allowing the THAAD missile to intercept and destroy threats.
In forward-based mode, the AN/TPY-2 cues the BMDS by detecting, discriminating and tracking enemy ballistic missiles in the boost, or ascent phase of flight.
AN/TPY-2 radars are forward-based in Japan, Israel and Turkey.
“Raytheon’s AN/TPY-2 radar is a critical element in defending against the growing ballistic missile threat,” said David Gulla, vice president of Global Integrated Sensors for Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems business. “Giving MDA the flexibility to quickly deploy an additional, operationally-effective AN/TPY-2 is an important step toward meeting the growing demand for this vital radar.”
In mid-July, the Defense Department announced an $83.7 million effort to Raytheon as part of a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) case to the United Arab Emirates for AN/TPY-2 radars as part of a larger FMS case as an element of the THAAD system.
The announcement “reflects a modification to a previously awarded contract for the FMS sale of the AN/TPY-2 ballistic missile defense radar, the THAAD’s fire control radar,” Bedingfield said.
The production line is active, Bedingfield said, so there are possibilities to “gain some fleet agility” by bringing older cooling units back and refurbishing them.
MDA is taking a hard look at where it will get the most bang for its buck, he said. One thing Raytheon is working with MDA on is determining if it’s possible to gain efficiency in fleet management, now that there’s a growing fleet of AN/TPY-2 radars worldwide.
“We’re looking at how we might be able to manage the fleet across the world in a more efficient manner than just managing single radars,” he said.
Fleet management is a harbinger of the future, particularly to “bring to a common standard across the fleet with MDA partners drives costs down.”