Technology Today - Home
 
Features

Effects Technologies — Putting Energy On Target

This quarter's Technology Today features Raytheon's effector technologies and adjacent markets within its Missile Systems business. Raytheon Missile Systems has nearly 11,400 employees at its Tucson headquarters, with 800 more at facilities in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Kentucky and New Mexico. Sales for 2007 totaled $5 billion.

Raytheon leads the world in design, development and production of missile systems, but it is also expanding into adjacent markets such as directed-energy weapons, space vehicles, autonomic tracking and response systems, and network-enabled effectors.

Good NEWS for Building Netted Weapon Capability

In 2004, Raytheon began to assess the future of weapon systems in a net-centric battlespace. Using internal funding, we studied Department of Defense documents on the desired capabilities of the Net-Centric Environment and what that might mean for expanded weapon-system roles. We have since developed a top-level operational concept for netted weapons and:

Demo of First Net-Centric Weapon System Planned for July

In July 2008, Raytheon engineers will make history by field-demonstrating the first network-centric weapon system. This military-sponsored exercise marks a critical milestone in delivering fully net-enabled effects to our warfighters for the evolving net-centric battlespace.

The engineers aim to meet "net-ready compliant" requirements defined by the Pentagon's Networks and Information Integration Agency. Its Net-Centric Environment is based on the military's Global Information Grid — an encrypted "private Internet" based on satellite, fiber-optic and wireless technologies. It uses net-centric services implemented as a service-oriented architecture to provide an information-management capability. This combination allows authorized network users to request services from any net-enabled system registered on the network.

Pushing Information Technology to the Tactical Edge

Information Technology is a key element in Raytheon Missile Systems' (RMS) drive to expand its core effects market and expand into adjacent markets. The Innovation and Technology Directorate identifies, develops and champions technology research to make Raytheon a leader in net-centric systems.

During the last two years, the directorate has addressed complex questions related to the tactical edge of military operations, and making Raytheon weapons part of the net-centric environment. As described in this issue's articles about Project NINJA and net-enabled effectors, creating a netted-weapons system requires collaboration among many different expertise areas.

Directed-Energy Systems are Raytheon's Latest Way to Put Energy on Target

While Raytheon leads the world in tactical missiles, its revenue from adjacent markets is growing rapidly. One of these key markets is directed-energy systems that can be placed on land, sea or air platforms.

These use electromagnetic energy to counter threats, instead of the chemical and kinetic energy used by missiles. They can precisely track fast targets and reach them instantaneously, thus defeating speed and evasive maneuvers as countermeasures. In addition, they can minimize collateral damage and rapidly reload.

Raytheon's New Autonomic Tracking and Response System Exploits Adjacent-Market Opportunity

You manage a huge shipping port with stacks of cargo containers, some with perishable goods. How can you identify and locate containers with failed refrigeration units, so you can dispatch service technicians?

You head a repair depot where a customer has returned a product under warranty. Upon opening the container, you discover that it was never dropped. How can you mitigate this claim?

You supervise a secure area where motion detectors indicate an unauthorized moving object. How can you distinguish between a human or animal intruder?

Raytheon Missile Systems Expands its Adjacent-Market Horizon to Space

Some of the advanced technologies that make Raytheon's missile products the world's best also have space applications. As our nation and others build next-generation spacecraft, the high frontier offers an adjacent market with huge potential.

Other Raytheon businesses already lead parts of the space market. Space and Airborne Systems has built instruments for many spacecraft, including Magellan, Galileo, Lunar Surveyor and the Mars Exploration Rovers. Network Centric Systems also provides space payloads and is developing laser communications for space. And Raytheon Technical Services Company has provided mission trainers for every NASA human-flight program.