Raytheon Awarded Contract for 100 Kilowatt Laser Weapon System

Raytheon Company is developing a 100 kW class laser weapon system under a $10 million U.S. Army’s High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstration (HEL TVD) program contract. The preliminary design will be integrated for demonstration onboard a military Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) truck. The science and technology demonstration program is part of the Army’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) Increment 2 Block 2 (IFPC 2-I Blk 2) initiative designed to defeat drones, rockets, artillery, and mortars (C-RAM/UAS).

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Raytheon's KTech Contracted to Convert 2 Cruise Missiles Into EMP Weapons for Demo

Raytheon’s acquisition of directed energy firm Ktech in 2011 is paying dividends following the US Defense Department’s award of a $4.8 million contract to repackage two air-launched cruise missiles as high-power microwave weapons.

Ktech produced the pulsing electronics kit that Boeing proved could knock out banks of computers in an October 2012 flight demonstration, overseen by the US Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL).

The award to Raytheon is the first significant movement on the so-called Counter-electronics High-power microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) since that 2012 demonstration. The announcement is a blow to Boeing, which no longer leads the effort.

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Raytheon Tests 2 km Range Pike Missile That can be Fired From a 40mm Grenade Launcher

Raytheon Company successfully fired two Pike 40 mm precision-guided munitions from a standard tube grenade launcher during flight tests at Mile High Resources in Texas. Both rounds landed within the targeted impact area after flying more than 2,300 yards. (2.1 km). Weighing less than two pounds and measuring just 16.8 inches (42.6 cm) in length, Pike can be fired from a conventional, single-shot grenade launcher such as the M320 or EGLM (Enhanced Grenade Launching Module). The maximum range of M320 grenade launcher is 437 Yards (350 meters).

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Raytheon AN/SPY-6 Radar Easily Passes CDR

The U.S. Navy and Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) have completed the AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) critical design review. The outcome confirms Raytheon's design and technologies as mature, producible and low risk; on track to meet all radar performance requirements, on schedule and within cost.

The CDR assessed all technical aspects of the program, from hardware specifications, software development, risk mitigation and producibility analysis, to program management, test and evaluation schedules, and cost assessments. The review concluded with Navy stakeholders impressed with the radar's progress to date and confident in the program's path forward to on-time delivery.

"This successful milestone is the culmination of our team's unwavering focus on continuous technology maturity, risk mitigation and cost reduction throughout all phases of development," said Raytheon's Kevin Peppe, vice president of Integrated Defense Systems' Seapower Capability Systems business area. "With customer validation in hand, we will now advance production, driving toward the ultimate – and timely – delivery of this highly capable and much-needed integrated air and missile defense radar capability to the DDG 51 Flight III destroyer."

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DARPA Gives Raytheon $20 Million Contract to Continue Boost Glide Hypersonic Weapon Development

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) a $20,489,714 million contract modification for the Tactical Boost Glide program. Under the TBG program, Raytheon intends to develop and demonstrate the technology to enable air-launched hypersonic boost glide systems. A majority of the work will be performed in Tucson.

"Hypersonics is the new frontier of missile design and development," said Tom Bussing, Raytheon vice president of Advanced Missile Systems. "The extreme environments where these advanced missiles must operate present significant engineering challenges. Our extensive experience and expertise in developing advanced guided weapon systems uniquely position Raytheon to help solve these problems and deliver these solutions."

Once fielded, TBG could fly at speeds faster than Mach 5 and at altitudes of nearly 200,000 feet. To achieve the required speeds, the re-entry vehicles would be designed to skip across the inside of Earth's upper atmosphere before descending on their targets. The new missiles would have to withstand intense heat while remaining highly maneuverable, and would require sensor packages to engage moving or re-locatable targets.

Hypersonic weapons would be difficult to intercept, and would enable warfighters to strike targets at long range much more quickly than current missile technology allows.

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US Navy's Next Generation Jammer Pod On Track

Farnborough is an air show, but many of the briefings scheduled by American companies this year focus on electronic warfare and missiles — not airplanes. Raytheon, winner of the Next Generation Jammer competition, and the other four defense giants know that much of the money to be made in the next decade will come from upgrades and add-ons, not new platforms. And much of the new money is destined for just the sort of technology the NGJ is sure to bring: the area where cyber and classic electronic warfare now merge thanks to digital technologies such as the AESA radar (active electronically scanned array).

There is news on that front. Since Raytheon’s win over BAE Systems, ITT/Boeing and Northrop Grumman was reaffirmed earlier this year — in spite of BAE Systems’ successful protest — the program has made very little news.

But we can report that the head of the program at Raytheon, Rick Yuse, says the program’s System Readiness Review (intended to ensure the program can meet all its requirements) ”went extremely well” late last month.

“It’s a solid design,” he said, “well thought through.” He added that “program execution is near perfect.” Initial flight testing on the jammer’s components is now set for September. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) should happen in late 2017 or early 2018, he said.

Anyone who has followed high technology programs in the military knows that they often suffer much of their greatest angst in the first few years, as requirements get changed, unexpected technology problems arise, and funding wobbles.

Yuse attributed much of the program’s success so far to the fact that Raytheon “had a plan to do a lot of risk reduction very early in the contract.” He told me that virtually all of the technology sits at or above Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6, which is generally just below production-ready and appropriate for subsystem development. More specifically he said, the program’s four key technologies were at TRL six when they started.

Very little has been said publicly by Raytheon or the Navy about the NGJ, its technologies or its capabilities. Yuse continued that trend, very politely. He described the system as covering both offensive and defensive electronic warfare. It is “initially focused heavily on the air-to-ground mission for air defense.”

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Laser Used in a Naval Enviroment to Down UAV