Army awards Raytheon $2 billion to begin LTAMDS production - August 2, 2024

August 5, 2024

WASHINGTON — As the US Army moves to build a layered defense system to protect key locations like Guam from aerial threats, it has officially awarded a high-dollar initial production contract of a key component of that plan: a new 360-degree radar dubbed the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense System, or LTAMDS.

Meant to replace the current Patriot radars, the systems will be the first production units fielded some six years after the US government selected Raytheon, now owned by parent company RTX, to deliver six production representative units for testing and other assessment activities. While the duo encountered technical challenges  with those initial LTAMDS units that led to a production delay, on Wednesday the service announced it was awarding the company just north of $2 billion to begin low-rate initial production on an unspecified number of radars. Those dollars, the Army added, will run through the end of November 2028.

The contract announcement notes that money for the LTAMDS radars is also funneled in from Foreign Military Sales figures for Poland. In September 2023 Warsaw announced its agreement to buy 12 of the radars, becoming the first international customer for the system.

“The LTAMDS capability increases sensor/radar performance to maximize the inherent Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhanced (MSE) Interceptor capabilities to engage threats,” the service wrote in fiscal 2025 budget request documents. That spending request, still on Capitol Hill, includes $517 million to purchase four units next year. If the Army’s current plan sticks, it wants to purchase another five LTAMDS in 2026 and another handful in 2027, before upping the production run to eight units per year in 2028 and 2029, according to budget documents.

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