Recent Developments and Future Trends in Phased Arrays Dr. Eli Brookner Raytheon Co., 528 Boston Post Road, Sudbury, MA 01776 Tel: 978-440-4007; Fax: 978-440-3000; e-mail: [email protected] Abstract: An update is here given of the amazing advances in phased arrays from small low cost arrays to large arrays. Now >500 A/C AESAs have been deployed with > 400,000 operational flight hours; >1.8 million T/Rs manufactured; over a million blind spot car radars manufactured; Patriot upgraded to 2012 state-of-the- art; 8 AN/TPY-2s delivered and 5 more to be built; JLENS, CJR, AN/SPY-3 and Dual Band Radar about to be deployed; DBF advancing with Australian S-band CEAFAR, which has A/D at each element, having undergone sea tests; AMDR and Space Fence have undergone their initial development phase; GaN allowing 5x power for same footprint as GaAs; 3D integrated circuit digital chips in production - Moore's Law marches on; DARPA looking at developing a low cost 94 GHz array with a cost goal of $1/element; DARPA COSMOS program taking monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) to the next level allowing mixed signal integration. Figure 1 (Courtesy of Raytheon) Keywords: Multi-mode, multi-function family of AESA radars deliver a Phased array, AESA, radar, active arrays, passive arrays, dramatic increase in warfighter capability -- including simultaneous air-to-air and air-to-ground operations, along with superior PATRIOT, JLENS, THAAD, AN/TPY-2, Cobra Judy Replacement, detection, targeting, tracking and self-protection features. CJR, AMDR, Space Fence Radar, Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long Range Radar, 3DELRR, MPAR, NexGen, 1.3 PATRIOT UPGRADE: Dual Band Radar, SPY-3, graphene, metamaterials, The Patriot, Fig. 2a, has undergone a major upgrade. From the electromagnetic band-gap material, EBG, orbital angular tip of its nose cone to the base of its radar, designers have momentum, OAM, MEMS, FPGA, SAR, car radar, signal processing 1. PRODUCTION, UPGRADES, DEVELOPMENTS: This paper is an update of [1-7]. 1.1 T/R MODULE PRODUCTION: Raytheon alone has produced more than 1.8 million AESA (active electronically scanned array) T/R modules to date. 1.2 AIRCRAFT AESAs USING MIMC: Raytheon Company alone has delivered more than 500 tactical aircraft active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars for multiple platforms worldwide. These AESA include the APG- 79, APG-63(V)3 and APG-82(V)1 radars which have achieved more than 400,000 cumulative operational flight hours on F-15, F/A-18E/F and EA-18G aircraft; see Fig. 1. These Figure 2a 978-1-4673-1127-4/12/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 43 circuits in the radar and command stations, shrinking and speeding up components. The missile’s mobile control room got a major makeover, with huge touch screens, faster computers and sleek black keyboards replacing banks of controls. In the factory brand-new machinery installed capable of installing 30,000 components an hour. In the radar, one assembly that took 435 circuit cards is now down to five. Sixteen power supplies were combined into one. Wiring that used to require 31 cables now takes 10. New advances have also made the Patriot easier to maintain. Antenna elements no longer have to be sent back to the factory for repair. They can be replaced right in the field. 1.4 AN/TPY-2: Figure 2b. (Photo Courtesy of Raytheon) Depending on the needs of the warfighter, the AN/TPY-2 radar (Fig. 3) can be deployed in two different modes. In forward- invested more than $400 million into Patriot in the last four years as part of a massive program aimed at making the Patriot air and missile defense system faster, smarter, tougher and more reliable. Miniature components (see Fig. 2b) have replaced racks of equipment. Touchscreens have replaced control panels. New machines in Raytheon’s Andover, Mass. factory are making parts lighter, stronger and longer-lasting. Engineers are now giving Patriot the ability to see further by connecting it to Raytheon’s system of radar-carrying airships, the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS. In April, a Patriot missile used information from a JLENS to smash a target out of the sky at a Figure 3 AN/TPY-2 (Photo Courtesy of Raytheon) test range in Utah. The Patriot also works in coordination with Based mode, the radar is positioned near hostile territory, and The Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) System as acquires ballistic missiles in the boost (ascent) phase of flight, part of a strong, coordinated two-tier defense system against shortly after they are launched. It then tracks and incoming theater ballistic missiles. The Patriot is the lower-tier discriminates the threat, and passes critical information and the THAAD the upper-tier. The X-band 25,000 element required by decision makers to the Command and Control AN/TPY-2 is the radar sensor for the THAAD system. Over Battle Management network. 200 Patriot systems have been deployed around the world. When the AN/TPY-2 radar is deployed in terminal mode, the With its new technology the new Patriot can take on any threat in radar’s job is to detect, acquire, track and discriminate ballistic missiles in the terminal (descent) phase of flight. The terminal- the world. It can counter emerging and evolving threats from mode AN/TPY-2 also leads the Terminal High Altitude Area SRBMs, as well as those from cruise missiles, drones, and fighter Defense ballistic missile defense system by guiding the THAAD and bomber aircraft. It has undergone more than 1,000 real- missile to intercept a threat. world flight tests, and more than 2,500 search and track tests. Eight AN/TPY-2s have been delivered to date and three more Patriot was state-of-the-art in 1982 when it was delivered into the are to be built for U.S. and two for overseas. U.S. Army inventory, and Patriot is state-of-the-art in 2012 when it was delivered to the UAE inventory. The U.S. government and other partners in the program have helped fund the 1.5 JLENS: modernization, but it was an order for new Patriot systems for the United Arab Emirates that gave designers the chance to Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS; Fig. 4) is an elevated, persistent reengineer Patriot from the ground up in late 2008. The first new GEM-T missile streaked into the sky at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in August 2011, followed by a test firing of the first complete, new-production Patriot system in March 2012. The U.S. Army plans to field Patriot through 2048. The system had already gone through several upgrades since its debut in the first Gulf War. But designers now gave the Patriot missile a faster, more accurate guidance system known as Guidance-Enhanced Missile – Tactical, or GEM-T. They rewired 44 Figure 4 Photo Courtesy of Raytheon over-the-horizon aerostat sensor system. It uses a powerful integrated radar system to detect, track and target a variety of threats. This capability better enables commanders to defend against threats including hostile cruise missiles; low-flying manned and unmanned aircraft; and moving surface vehicles such as boats, automobiles and trucks; and to provide ascent- phase detection of tactical ballistic missiles and large caliber rockets. ∙ A JLENS system, referred to as an orbit, consists of two tethered, 74-meter helium filled aerostats connected to mobile mooring stations and communications and processing groups. JLENS aerostats fly as high as 10,000 feet and can remain aloft and operational for up to 30 days. ∙ One aerostat carries surveillance radar with 360-degree Figure 5 Photo Courtesy of Raytheon surveillance capability; the other aerostat carries fire control radar. ∙ According to research conducted by the U.S. Army's JLENS Product office, the cost of operating large, fixed-wing surveillance aircraft is 5-7 times greater than the cost of operating JLENS. ∙ The JLENS surveillance radar can simultaneously track hundreds of threats; the fire control radar can simultaneously target dozens of threats. "JLENS' TBMD capability gives combatant commanders another tool they can use to help protect the U.S., deployed forces, our allies and friends from the growing ballistic missile threat," said Dean Barten, the U.S. Army's JLENS program manager. "JLENS' TBMD capability, when coupled with its ability to conduct 360-degree long-range surveillance capability and simultaneously detect and engage threats like swarming boats and anti-ship cruise missiles from up to 340 miles away, gives commanders a powerful proven capability." As indicated above JLENS has been connected to Patriot to give it the ability to see further. JLENS demonstrated tactical ballistic missile defense (TBMD) Fig. 5b CJR Team celebrate a successful first live-launch. capability when it detected and tracked a total of four ballistic- missile surrogates on their ascent (boost) phase during tests at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M., Feb. 19, 2013. As a result enemy tactical ballistic missiles will soon be easier to detect and It surpassed expectations during its first tests against a live track. Along with other X-Band radars, JLENS can provide a rocket launch on March 19. From approximately 100 miles off robust early warning and tracking capability against ballistic the Florida coast, the powerful X- and S-band radars integrated missiles. This TBMD demonstration and JLENS' other recent successes prove that the system is ready to deploy for a onboard the USNS Howard O. Lorenzen (T-AGM 25) combatant commander operational evaluation. JLENS successfully acquired and tracked both stages of an Atlas V demonstrated its capability against cruise missiles when it rocket launched from Cape Canaveral and collected all enabled Patriot and Standard Missile-6 intercepts of cruise- associated data.