RTX's Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor positioned for production

Raytheon, an RTX business, is transitioning to production of its Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, after completing the U.S. Army's rigorous flight test program and achieving the Department of Defense's Major Capability Acquisition Milestone C designation.

LTAMDS has completed eight successful flight tests of increasing complexity to stress the radar and prove its capabilities against real-world threats. This led the Army to validate that the radar has reached Milestone C, initiating the production and deployment phase of the program. LTAMDS is now officially designated a program of record by the U.S. Army and ready to support both its U.S. homeland defense and expeditionary missions.

“This is an unprecedented achievement, with a development program of this magnitude transitioning from prototype to production and deployment at an accelerated pace,” says Tom Laliberty, president of Land and Air Defense Systems at Raytheon. “Our collaborative partnership with the U.S. Army and our broad base of industry partners has driven the historic execution of the LTAMDS program in record time, delivering advanced 360-degree integrated air and missile defense capability.”

The U.S. Army leveraged Middle-Tier Acquisition authority granted by Congress to rapidly prototype and field LTAMDS. Defense programs of this scale and complexity regularly take more than a decade to achieve Milestone C.

Raytheon recently delivered the first six LTAMDS to the U.S. Army funded by a 2019 contract award. The company is currently manufacturing eight additional LTAMDS radars per year and is ramping up annual production to 12 units to meet global demand. Raytheon will deliver radar seven and eight later this year and is producing radars for the U.S. Army and Poland that were contracted for in August 2024.

Poland is the first international customer to add LTAMDS to their air and missile defense architecture. A dozen additional countries are requesting information about LTAMDS and receiving pricing and availability estimates.