Raytheon has produced the first group of S-band transmit/receive (T/R) modules for the U.S. Navy's Air and Missile Defense Radar program.

The modules have been thoroughly tested and have proved to meet or exceed all AMDR performance and reliability requirements. This success marks a major milestone for the program, for which Raytheon is currently developing a technology demonstrator for the system's S-band radar and radar suite controller.

"Our AMDR T/R modules are demonstrating significant capability and performance reliability," said Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems' (IDS) Kevin Peppe, vice president of Seapower Capability Systems. "Leveraging our established manufacturing expertise, experience and capacity, we will deliver a low-risk, high-performance system on schedule and on budget."

This milestone advances Raytheon's progress for Phase II of the AMDR program and also demonstrates Raytheon's manufacturing readiness for AMDR Phase III, which calls for engineering and manufacturing development. Under Phase III, industry teams competing for the program will each be required to produce a functioning radar. Raytheon recently participated in a system requirements review with the Navy to report on its progress to date.

Raytheon's skill and experience working with multiple radar bands, dating back to the Cobra Judy program and continuing today with the advanced Dual Band Radar and Cobra Judy Replacement programs, will ensure that AMDR's S- and X-band radars operate in coordination across a variety of operational environments. Additionally, Raytheon's extensive work with large-scale, active phased-array radars and expertise in ballistic missile defense radar technology position the company well for the AMDR competition.

The company has a long heritage of developing and producing some of the world's most capable air and missile defense radars. Additionally, Raytheon has produced more than 1.8 million AESA (active electronically scanned array) T/R modules to date and has decades of experience working with adaptive beamforming technologies.

AMDR will provide unprecedented capabilities for the Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The radar suite will consist of an S-band radar, X-band radar and radar suite controller.

The AMDR S-band component will provide volume search, tracking, ballistic missile defense discrimination and missile communications, while the X-band will perform horizon search, precision tracking, missile communication and terminal illumination functions. Also, AMDR will be scalable, enabling installation and integration on multiple platforms to meet the Navy's current and future mission requirements.

Work on the AMDR program is performed at Raytheon IDS Headquarters, Tewksbury, Mass.; at the Surveillance and Sensors Center, Sudbury, Mass.; at the Seapower Capability Center, Portsmouth, R.I.; and at the Integrated Air Defense Center, Andover, Mass. Raytheon has partnered with General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems and shipbuilder Gibbs and Cox in the development of this next-generation radar solution.