Raytheon Wins Air Force Contract for Drone, Missile Radar

The U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon a $19.5 million contract for engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) of the Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar, a mobile radar the company says will detect, identify and track drones, missiles and aircraft.

The EMD contract calls for Raytheon to deliver three radar systems over two years. Another three systems would follow in a low-rate initial production phase if the Air Force exercises that option, bringing the contract value to $72 million. The service has said that it plans to buy 35 total systems beginning in Fiscal Year 2019, Raytheon said.

The new radar would replace the Vietnam-era Northrop Grumman AN/TPS-75 “Tipsy 75” mobile tactical radar, a system that provides three-dimensional, 360-degree detection of airborne threats out to 240 nm, according to the Air Force. Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin also competed for the Air Force contract.

Raytheon’s system operates in the C-band and is based on gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology, a way for the company to “affordably increase the radar’s range, sensitivity and search capabilities.” Saab Defense and Security, of Syracuse, N.Y., is supplying radar software and Dynetics, of Huntsville, Ala., a shell that is part of the system design.

Known by the acronym 3DELRR, the radar is one of the first programs under the Pentagon’s “Better Buying Power” initiative “designed from the ground up with exportability in mind,” said Andrew Hajek, the company’s program director. During a teleconference, Raytheon executives offered few other details, saying their were constrained in what they could discuss about the program.