Raytheon contracted to develop next-gen software-defined radar technology

Raytheon received a contract to develop advanced software for SPY-6 radars, like the sensors shown here (Raytheon)

The US Office of Naval Research awarded Raytheon a USD22.6 million contract to advance software for next-generation naval radars by enabling each building block within a radar to operate independently, so a single radar could perform multiple missions simultaneously, the company said on 18 May.

The work is part of the Subarray Transmit Orthogonality for Receive Multiplexing (STORM) programme, the Pentagon said in statement about the contract.

The contract provides for the “expansion and exploitation of transmit multiplexing for SPY-6”, the Pentagon said, adding that STORM introduces two capabilities in the base programme: subarray-level independent transmit and directional modulation.

“By treating each building block as its own software-defined aperture, the radar can rapidly adapt to changing operational needs and better share crowded frequency bands with commercial networks,” Raytheon said in a statement.

The concept behind the new software is to provide naval radars multi-mission flexibility and improved spectrum sharing with 5G, Raytheon said.

The “precise, software driven control over where and how” a radar radiates will help apertures adapt and keep pace with evolving missions, Colina Whelan, president of Advanced Technology at Raytheon, noted in a statement.

The modular architecture provides flexibility to upgrade sensors through software rather than hardware redesign, according to Raytheon. Radar performance can be adapted and expanded more quickly at lower cost and reduced risk than in previous iterations, it added.

Once the software development is complete, Raytheon will conduct a series of demonstrations to validate independent control of radar modules and associated capabilities such as multi-mission operation and spectrum sharing, the company said.