Spectral Vision MR Takes Off
GhostEye® MR has achieved significant advancements since its introduction at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual event in October 2021.
“It’s astonishing to think that only a year has gone by since we unveiled the new radar,” stated Carl Hartford, the program’s lead engineer and technical director at Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a sector of Raytheon Technologies. “From enhanced detection and tracking of live targets to a weeklong U.S. government demonstration showcasing the sensor’s multi-mission functionalities, the developments are unmistakable.”
GhostEye MR, a cutting-edge medium-range air and missile defense radar, senses, monitors, and identifies various threats, including cruise missiles, drones, and both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. The innovative 360-degree surveillance and fire-control sensor draws from common features with the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, that Raytheon Missiles & Defense is developing for the U.S. Army.
Evaluation and Integration
Since finalizing the design and development of GhostEye MR’s hardware and software in mid-2021, the program team has constructed a complete system prototype.
“Leveraging our open-air testing facility in New England, we’ve fused our search/track functionalities with the hardware and have successfully monitored targets of opportunity,” Hartford mentioned.
Through hardware and software simulation along with live-tracking results, the team has begun to affirm the system’s performance and substantiate its full capabilities.
“Due to the swift progress and integration our team has accomplished, we are prepared to present GhostEye MR to additional potential clients and collaborate with the U.S. government for multi-mission trials in 2023,” Hartford added.
In the upcoming months, the GhostEye MR team will execute further hardware and software evaluations and employ instrumented targets to validate the precision of the system’s fire control.
“It’s vital that we sustain our pace,” remarked Rob Lescanec, Director of Requirements & Capabilities for Land Warfare & Air Defense at RMD. “The United States and its partners are confronting increasingly sophisticated threats, such as cruise missiles, advanced aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles, including drones. This circumstance has generated a high demand for medium-range air defense solutions to secure that domain.”
GhostEye MR Elevating NASAMS
NASAMS is produced and supported by Raytheon Missiles & Defense in collaboration with Norwegian firm Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace. This medium-range air defense system has been operational for over three decades and is presently utilized by the U.S. and 11 allied countries. (Photo: Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace)
The concept for GhostEye MR emerged in early 2020 as an initiative to enhance the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System, or NASAMS, to combat a new generation of threats.
That system employs Raytheon Missiles & Defense’s Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile Extended Range variant, or AMRAAM®-ER, and GhostEye MR will empower this effector to broaden its coverage of its complete kinematic envelope, or reachable area. The GhostEye MR initiative is aiming for a live-fire evaluation of the radar integrated with NASAMS.
In addition to GhostEye’s adaptable design, two of its pivotal technologies will provide NASAMS with a competitive edge: active electronically scanned array, or AESA – enhancing detection, targeting, and tracking – and military-grade gallium nitride, or GaN – which amplifies the radar’s signal, improving its sensitivity for extended range, enhanced resolution, and increased capacity.
“GhostEye MR boosts NASAMS’ decision-making efficiency, broadens the range and altitude the system can reach and defend,” Lescanec asserted. “All of this results in heightened accuracy and performance in the battlespace—which is essential as adversarial threats are evolving to be faster, more intelligent, and more pervasive.”
