Raytheon, an RTX business, has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Army Futures Command (AFC) Futures and Concepts Center (FCC) to conduct theater level concept experimentation and mission analysis to support agile learning of the future battlefield.
Under the contract, a Raytheon team will use its Rapid Campaign Analysis and Demonstration Environment, known as RCADE, to develop large-scale theater scenarios to help FCC leaders assess concepts of operations in a multi-domain conflict. Quantitative data and findings from the scenarios will help identify capabilities needed to succeed in future conflicts.
“RCADE helps our customers look at some of the most difficult missions and evaluate how to change the outcome for the positive,” said Colin Whelan, president of advanced technology at Raytheon. “Our team of highly trained experts power this groundbreaking capability, enabling it to deliver credible, unbiased solutions.”
RCADE is part of Raytheon’s integrated ecosystem of modeling and simulation capabilities that are fed by real-world analytics, models, and data. It creates an experimentation environment where customers can explore battlefield scenarios, assess how different variables impact mission outcomes and quickly iterate their options with greater speed.
In tandem with RCADE, the technical expertise provided by Raytheon engineers will complement the U.S. Army’s analysis enterprise. They will work together to meet the challenge of the future and solve complex evolving threats.
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We attended a Raytheon briefing with the Advanced Technology Business, led by Colin Whelan, where they disclosed some of their plans with the press for the first time. On their web site they discuss RCADE as "a campaign-level modeling and simulation capability that expands the scope and scale of defense analysis. It will help leading defense minds uncover solutions that will achieve mission success. RCADE illuminates the big picture so military leaders can take on their most challenging mission problems." Customers can now simulate and model their systems first and then use standard building blocks to realize them quickly.
RCADE allows customers to customize analyses to address their specific mission needs and can gain operational insight from a campaign level view. They further explained Raytheon has developed composable hardware building blocks that can be used to reduce development time and costs with open standard interfaces (such as MOSA). They have standard building blocks for radar arrays (2x2x2 ft. cubes that can be used to build any size aperture), common power management systems, and steering controls to name a few. These building block provide a software defined aperture that is upgradable remotely using the existing hardware.
On their web site they recently outlined how they are building their SPY-6 radar using these building blocks and GaN technology. The Navy plans to install SPY-6 on every new destroyer which is nearly 40 in the next decade, so Raytheon built a 1.7 million square-foot production facility in Andover, Massachusetts, with advanced manufacturing capabilities to build the radars fast enough to meet the Navy’s demand.
They also cover how Raytheon build a land radar for the Army when they demanded more power with GaN and delivered a prototype in 17 months. This is the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, LTAMDS, that can defend against threats ranging from small, slow drones to ultra-fast hypersonic missiles approaching from several directions at the same time.
Raytheon is evolving to meet the rapidly changing needs of the military with these new platforms. There is new competition from companies like Anduril that is building software configurable products that are off the shelf, so the industry is truly shifting to meet the quickly evolving threats worldwide.