The U.S. Army awarded Raytheon a $1.7 billion contract to produce a new missile defense sensor designed to replace the current radar system of the Patriot missile defense system. This announcement was made on August 28, 2023, as part of a Pentagon contract announcement.

This contract modification allows Raytheon to commence low-rate production of the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Systems (LTAMDS). With this new award, the cumulative total value of Raytheon’s contract rises to $3.8 billion. The estimated completion date for the low-rate production is set for the end of 2029.

At the time of the award, $435.7 million from fiscal 2025 Army missile procurement funds and $397 million in foreign military sales funds from Poland were obligated. The Army’s initial production lot will consist of approximately 10 radars, with plans to build a total of 94 radars throughout the project. Additionally, Raytheon will build 12 LTAMDS radars for Poland, marking Poland as the first foreign customer for this system.

Tom Laliberty, Raytheon’s president of land and air defense systems, stated that this contract highlights the necessity for LTAMDS amid increasingly complex threat tactics and underscores the U.S. Army’s confidence in the system’s advanced 360-degree integrated air and missile defense capability.

The Army had approved LTAMDS for low-rate production in April 2023. They have been working on replacing the outdated Patriot systems for over 15 years, initially running a competition for a full system before deciding to develop a new command-and-control system and radar independently.

The LTAMDS radar represents a crucial modernization component within the Army’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense system, complemented by the already fielded Integrated Battle Command system. Raytheon was awarded a contract in 2019 to produce prototypes over a five-year span. The Army opted to extend testing of the sensor by an additional year to ensure its maturity before final production.

LTAMDS has successfully undergone eight major missile flight tests and roughly 10,000 hours of additional testing, which included evaluations against various environmental challenges. Currently, the production time for an LTAMDS unit is approximately 40 months, with efforts underway to reduce this to 36 months.

The Army is planning to conduct the initial operational test and evaluation for LTAMDS in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 and has already sent one unit for evaluation in Guam. Full-rate production is targeted for 2028.