Pentagon ends new radar effort meant for Guam missile defense

Early this yr, the Pentagon issued a memo halting growth of a brand new radar meant to guard Guam from high-end air and missile threats, in accordance with a Could 22 Authorities Accountability Workplace report on the trouble to guard the strategic island within the Pacific.

“On January 7, 2025, the Deputy Secretary of Protection [Kathleen Hicks] directed the [Missile Defense Agency] to stop growth of one of many components, the AN/TPY-6 radar, however to retain the at present fielded panel as an experimental asset with potential to develop for operational use inside the [Guam Defense System] sooner or later,” the report states.

Whereas Hicks’ determination got here on the finish of her tenure beneath the Biden administration, GAO notes the modifications will not be binding on the brand new administration.

The Pentagon’s plan to develop an elaborate air-and-missile protection structure is starting to take form and might be pieced collectively over the approaching years with a purpose to defend Guam from more and more complicated threats rising in China and North Korea.

MDA had shipped its first AN/TPY-6 panel on a ship headed to the island final summer season, planning to make use of it to trace a risk launched from a C-17 aircraft in a primary flight take a look at of present functionality coming collectively for the protection of Guam on the finish of 2024.

The brand new radar makes use of expertise from MDA’s Lengthy-Vary Discrimination Radar positioned in Alaska at Clear Area Drive Base, which can have its personal take a look at subsequent yr forward of declaring operational functionality.

The Guam Protection System may even depend on a wide range of methods nonetheless in growth, principally inside the Military. The Navy will present expertise and functionality from its Aegis weapons system. The land service plans to carry to Guam at present fielded capabilities, just like the Patriot system and its Built-in Battle Command System, or IBCS, that connects any sensor and shooter collectively on the battlefield, in addition to Mid-Vary Functionality missile launchers, which have been first fielded on the finish of 2023.

The Military may even incorporate Patriot’s radar substitute, the Decrease Tier Air and Missile Protection Sensor, or LTAMDS, which was simply accredited for manufacturing, and its Oblique Hearth Safety Functionality launchers, that are reaching the top of the prototyping part.

With the termination of AN/TPY-6, for now, Hicks directed the MDA prioritize remaining Aegis Guam methods growth funds “towards delivering minimal viable Aegis C2 [command and control] and datalink capabilities to allow Normal Missile 6 (SM-6) engagements off distant monitor from AN/TPY-2 and LTAMDS over the JTMC [Joint Track Management Capability] bridge,” in accordance with GAO’s report.

The Pentagon’s memo required upgrading the JTMC bridge to deal with all missile threats from China and obtain a Joint Tactical Built-in Hearth Management functionality — the long run joint monitor structure for Guam — “for coordinated battle administration, fight identification and digital safety,” the report states. These upgrades needs to be accomplished no later than 2029.

The memo additionally directed MDA to speed up key command-and-control integration work, together with getting the Military-operated Terminal Excessive Altitude Space Protection, or THAAD, system to work inside IBCS.

Guam is house to a everlasting THAAD battery known as Job Drive Talon, which serves because the crucial element for defending the island in opposition to ballistic missile threats.

Moreover, the Military and MDA “shall combine AN/TPY-2 measurement knowledge into IBCS no later than 2030 and obtain full integration by 2033,” the report particulars.

The MDA has lengthy used AN/TPY-2 radars to trace ballistic missiles, however Raytheon simply delivered a brand new model to MDA with Gallium Nitride, or GaN, which provides it the power to trace extra complicated threats at larger ranges like hypersonic weapons.

The primary new radar with GaN will go to the Military’s eight THAAD battery. The radars can be utilized in a forward-based mode, offering cuing knowledge to methods just like the Navy’s Aegis ballistic missile protection system or the Military’s Patriot. It serves as the first radar for THAAD.

The Military’s new LTAMDS radar, additionally developed by Raytheon, has GaN expertise as properly.