Raytheon broke ground on a new 23,000-square-foot expansion of its Andover, Massachusetts, integration and testing facility for the Army’s next-generation Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, the company announced Oct. 15.
The LTAMDS is planned to replace the Patriot system, which the company also produces, and is designed to counter such advanced threats as hypersonic weapons. The Army approved the new sensor earlier this year.
Tom Laliberty, Raytheon president of land and air defense systems, recently told Defense News the new $53 million wing is part of an LTAMDS production expansion already exceeding $400 million.
Raytheon has previously invested in software labs, areas for automated subsystem assembly, and an anechoic near-field range for antenna calibration. Laliberty said the new structure, including overhead cranes to move the radar in position, will allow assembly of full radar arrays, integrated with cooling, networking and processing gear.
The company plans to complete the facility by the end of next year, although Laliberty said he hopes the facility will be finished by the end of the year’s third quarter.
The LTAMDS itself has already passed a number of milestones. The Army this year approved the beginning of low-rate initial production for the program, after hundreds of hours of flight tests and radar qualification trials.
Raytheon has already built six prototype units and is now building two improved units incorporating the results of testing and operational evaluation that are expected to be provided to the Army this year for further testing.
Meanwhile, an LTAMDS prototype was sent to Guam for testing and evaluation in an operational environment this year.
Laliberty said Raytheon wants to triple its production rate.
The Army plans to increase builds from six to 12 radars a year under the low-rate initial production contract, but the factory’s planned capacity will be up to 18 radars annually for foreign military sales.
International demand is strong, according to Laliberty.
“There’s been about a dozen formal letters of interest … that ranges from classified briefing, defense design, requests for pricing and availability and then all-up [Letters of Request] for [Letters of Acceptance],” he said.
Poland has committed to buying 12 LTAMDS, along with 48 Patriot launchers as the first foreign customer to buy the new sensor.
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