September 12, 2019 | International, Aerospace
By: Jen Judson
LONDON — Raytheon is expecting a boom in international sales of its counter-UAS system already battle-tested with the U.S. Army.
The Howler system — which includes a Ku-band Radio Frequency Sensor, a command-and-control system, and a Coyote unmanned aircraft system designed to take out enemy drones — could soon see an abundance of buyers. The system could also include a high-energy laser defeat solution and a high-powered microwave capability to provide a non-kinetic approach to knocking drone threats out of commission, according to company officials.
“We have experienced quite a bit of interest from our international friends, partners and allies,” James McGovern, Raytheon vice president of mission systems and sensors in its Integrated Defense Systems business, told Defense News during an interview at DSEI, a defense exposition in London.
“It's exploded: Counter-unmanned aircraft systems is the in-vogue discussion on weapon space and solution set at every trade show we've been to. It's a nonstop revolving door of interested customers in our solutions,” he added.
Over the past five years, drone threats — cheap, commercial off-the-shelf ones — have proliferated in use, posing a threat on the battlefield as well as to airports, sports stadiums, government buildings and urban areas.
Raytheon is preparing to reach initial operational capability with the U.S. Army of its Block II version of the Coyote, which is a variant that makes the Block more missile-like in appearance. The IOC goal is for the first quarter of 2020, according to Pete Mangelsdorf, director of the Coyote and rapid development programs within the land warfare systems portfolio at Raytheon.
In the meantime, the company is soon expecting congressional notification for a sale to its first foreign country, Mangelsdorf said. Raytheon expects to see roughly 15 more countries issue letters of request for the Howler system to include Block II Coyote rapidly following the first congressional notification, he added.
The company has license to separately sell sensors abroad, but generally customers are not just interested in what the sense-and-detect capability sensors would bring but rather want full-up systems that include all of Howler's elements.
Raytheon's Howler system is flexible and can integrate into other systems and platforms, according to McGovern. Currently, Howler is used on a U.S. Army truck, but it could be integrated onto a pallet at a fixed site or mounted on a different truck depending on customer needs, McGovern said.
The U.S. Army system was developed in response to a joint urgent operational need statement to find something that could counter drones as well as rockets, artillery and mortars, according to Mangelsdorf. The Block I version of the Coyote, which looks more like a plane or loitering munition than a missile, was the interim capability in response to the joint urgent operational need statement.
The system is scalable in size. McGovern said Raytheon has used its gallium nitride technology to scale down the radar array while maintaining range and detection sensitivity, and while fitting it onto a smaller vehicle in the event a customer has a need for increased mobility, like in the case of special operations forces.
The radar has the ability to see singular drones and identify drone swarms with high fidelity. Other radars might just pick up a drone swarm as one big blob, McGovern noted.
October 10, 2024 | International, C4ISR, Security
OpenAI disrupts 20 malicious operations exploiting AI for cybercrime, including malware debugging, social media manipulation, and misinformation.
January 27, 2024 | International, Security
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Prime Minister of Montenegro Milojko Spajić to NATO Headquarters on Friday (26 January 2024). They discussed preparations for the upcoming Washington Summit and continued efforts to bolster the Alliance’s deterrence and defence.
November 5, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security
Andrew Eversden WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army's Network Cross-Functional Team released a solicitation outlining capabilities it's interested in acquiring as part of future tactical network tools. The broad agency announcement was posted last week on beta.sam.gov. It lays out future research areas the Army's tactical network modernization team made up of the NetworkCFT and Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, wants to explore as part of future capability sets — new network tools it's delivering every two years. “The Network-CFT is focused on integration of tactical network efforts and ensures disciplined innovation as it works with speed and precision,” the announcement read. “The Network-CFT is conducting experimentations and demonstrations of proven joint and special operations solutions, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology, and Non-developmental items (NDIs) with operational units to inform future requirements.” The tactical network modernization team is seeking technology that aligns with its four lines of effort for upgrading the network: unified network; common operating environment; joint interoperability/coalition accessible; and command post mobility and survivability. All proposed technologies must be at a technology readiness level of six, the announcement read, meaning they're ready to be demonstrated as a prototype in an environment similar to the field. For the unified network effort, the Network CFT-PEO C3T team are seeking “available, reliable and resilient network that ensures seamless connectivity in any operationally contested environment.” Capability Set '23, the next iteration of tactical network tools, is focused on increasing network capacity and reducing latency. Unified network includes capabilities such as advanced waveforms to improve resiliency. The common operating environment line of effort “is interested in the means of ensuring a simple and intuitive single-mission command suite that is easily operated and maintained by Soldier.” The joint interoperability/coalition accessible team is looking for tools that can “more effectively” interact, both technically and operationally, with joint and coalition partners. The final line of effort, command post mobility and survivability, is interested in means of improving the “deployability, reliability, mobility and survivability” of command posts. The Army's current vision for future command posts are those that can be quickly set up and torn down, while also having low electromagnetic signatures to avoid detection by adversaries. “Certainly, any time that you adopt a lot of commercial technologies you start to look at how your signature is on the battlespace, so I really look to industry and how they can bring some of their best ideas and technologies for how we can potentially do spectrum obscuration, as well as decoys so we can minimize our footprint on the battlefield,” said Brig. Gen. Rob Collins, commanding general of PEO C3T. The Army's announcement is valid through the end of October 2025. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/it-networks/2020/11/04/us-armys-tactical-network-modernization-team-requests-industry-pitches-for-future-capabilities/