The U.S. Missile Defense Agency awarded Raytheon Co. a contract modification to develop “a transition to production process” to incorporate GaN into existing and future AN/TPY-2 radars.

The AN/TPY-2 is an X-Band radar used to identify ballistic missiles. The radar is an element of the U.S. Army’s THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) ballistic missile defense system.

The AN/TPY-2 currently use GaAs MMICs in the T/R modules. Replacing GaAs with GaN can increase the radar’s range, increase detection and discrimination performance and lower production costs, which has been demonstrated in other Raytheon-developed radar systems.

"GaN components have significant, proven advantages when compared to the previous generation GaAs technology," said Raytheon's Dave Gulla, vice president of the Integrated Defense Systems Mission Systems and Sensors business area. "Through this effort, Raytheon will develop a clear modernization upgrade path for the AN/TPY-2 radar, enabling the system to better defend people and critical assets against ballistic missile threats at home and abroad."