Raytheon, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business, is investing $100 million to expand its Portsmouth, R.I., facility. The expansion will accelerate Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) testing by increasing capacity and boost Patriot® GEM-T subcomponent production to meet growing global demand. The announcement comes eight months after the company broke ground on a $53 million expansion of its Radar Production Facility in Andover, Massachusetts. LTAMDS is a radar designed to defeat advanced threats, including hypersonic weapons. Raytheon is under contract for multiple LTAMDS radars for the U.S. Army and Poland. The program also recently completed its ninth successful flight test, using the radar’s multiple arrays to track and intercept a surrogate target.
“This investment strengthens our ability to deliver critical air and missile defense capabilities to customers around the world,” said Tom Laliberty, president of Land & Air Defense Systems at Raytheon. “Expanding in Portsmouth allows us to scale production, advance LTAMDS testing, and ensure the U.S. Army and our international partners receive these systems as quickly as possible.”
The Patriot Advanced Capability-2 (PAC-2) Guidance Enhanced Missile-Tactical (GEM-T) —designed for intercepting all types of airborne threats, including tactical ballistic missiles —is a primary effector for the combat-proven Patriot air and missile defense system. A modernized, digital fuze eliminates obsolescence and introduces significant performance improvements against tactical ballistic missile targets. This design increases sensitivity for improved performance against high-speed tactical ballistic missile targets. The low-noise front end of the GEM-T has increased seeker sensitivity for better acquisition and tracking. The new low-noise oscillator has a modified down-link, which provides a higher signal-to-interference ratio, improving acquisition and tracking of small airborne threats and cruise missiles in clutter.
RTX businesses have operated in Rhode Island for more than 60 years, currently employing more than 850 people. Raytheon’s Portsmouth campus plays a critical role supporting undersea technology, combat systems and radars. RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon Technologies Corporation,] is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. For more than 100 years, Raytheon has developed new technologies and enhanced existing capabilities in integrated air and missile defense, smart weapons, missiles, advanced sensors and radars, interceptors, space-based systems, hypersonics and missile defense across land, air, sea and space. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitalization, as well as one of the largest providers of intelligence services.
