Latest news with #FrankLozano
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Next-gen air defense radar approved for low-rate production
The U.S. Army has formally approved a new air and missile defense sensor to replace its aging Patriot for low-rate production, according to its system developer Raytheon. The service has been working on replacing its aging Patriot air and missile defense system for over 15 years, initially running a competition for a full system before canceling those plans in favor of developing a new command-and-control system and a new radar separately. The Army's Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, 'is a huge, significant capability,' Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, program executive officer for missiles and space, said in an exclusive interview with Defense News at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, last month. 'We anecdotally say it doubles legacy Patriot radar capability and not only does it double it, it provides you 360-degree capability.' The radar is a major modernization element for the Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense system, along with a fully modernized — and already fielded — command-and-control capability called the Integrated Battle Command system. The Army awarded Raytheon a contract in 2019 to deliver prototypes over five years. Building the radar rapidly was an ambitious challenge, according to Lozano, and the service decided to keep the sensor in testing for an extra year to ensure it was fully mature and ready for prime time. Now, following several successful flight tests, including ones that combined other major air and missile defense elements over last fall and early this year, the system has been deemed ready for low-rate initial production and the service is preparing to send two prototype systems used during testing to Guam as it builds up the island's air defense capability. 'I've been at Raytheon almost 40 years and worked a lot of large development programs and I have to say, I really don't know of one that's gone better,' Tom Laliberty, the company's president of land and air defense systems, told Defense News. 'To go from ... contract award, build six prototype units, test them over a few years and ... now ready to deploy them into theater is just unprecedented.' LTAMDS went through eight major missile flight tests along with roughly 10,000 hours of other testing, including radiate time, radar tracking time and testing against wind, rain, dust and road marches, during which soldiers 'kind of beat on them a little bit to see how they stand up,' Laliberty said. Additionally, LTAMDS is part of a larger air defense system, so the company and the Army worked to mature interfaces with the Northrop Grumman-made Integrated Battle Command System and integrate two different missiles: Patriot Advanced Capability 2 and PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement. 'That's really what that ... extra year was all about, the maturity of all that,' Laliberty noted. The Army's low-rate production lot will consist of roughly 10 radars. The service plans to build 94 radars total over the course of the program. Raytheon will also simultaneously build Poland's 12 LTAMDS radars on order. Poland is the first foreign customer for the system. Currently the time to build an LTAMDS is about 40 months on the production line, but the Army is working with Raytheon and has hired a consulting company to work on supply chain management in order to accelerate production time to 36 months (a formal program objective). 'From a cost perspective — [$13 billion across its life] — I think there's a huge win here,' Lozano said. 'It's a huge program, and it's likely going to be within the Army inventory for multiple decades. Because it's a digital radar that is software driven, it's going to mature and keep pace with the evolving threat.' 'We build the legacy Patriot radar for $110 to $115 million a copy,' he added. 'Right now, the initial cost of the LTAMDS radar is about $125 to $130 million a copy. That cost will continue to come down. We're building the newest, most advanced radar at almost the same exact price that we're building the legacy radar.' The Army's low-rate production period will last roughly two and a half years. The service is planning for the LTAMDS initial operational test and evaluation to take place in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. The service aims to reach full-rate production in 2028, Lozano said.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Army aiming for next hypersonic missile test in December
The U.S. Army has scheduled a test of its Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon, or LRHW, for December, the service's program executive officer for missiles and space told Defense News in a recent interview. After a lengthy delay as the Army and Navy struggled to test a jointly developed hypersonic glide body capability, the Army said earlier this year that it would field its ground-launched missiles to the first unit by the end of fiscal 2025. In fact, the Army is forecasting that the first unit to get the hypersonic capability will begin receiving the rounds at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, in the May time frame, Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano said. The 1st Multidomain Task Force, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Field Artillery Brigade unit at JBLM received all equipment for the LRHW capability except for the actual live rounds in 2021. The unit was supposed to get the missiles in the fall of 2023 but several aborted test events forced the Army to push back its fielding plans. The Army is working to transition the LRHW program from the Army's Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO) to Program Executive Office Missiles & Space, but it won't formally join the portfolio until the first round is delivered, Lozano noted. Lockheed Martin, the lead weapon integrator for the truck-launched capability, is wrapping up work on the first round at its facility in Courtland, Alabama, according to Lozano. Leidos' Dynetics manufactures the common hypersonic glide body that will be supplied to both the Army and Navy versions of the weapon. The Army unit at JBLM will continue to receive rounds as they come off the production line throughout the year. The Army plans to couple a test firing of the round with soldiers from the unit at the console as part of their operational training in December because the rounds are 'very expensive,' Lozano said. 'We're trying to be efficient.' The U.S. is in a race to field the capability and develop systems to defend against hypersonic missiles, as China and Russia are actively developing and testing hypersonic weapons. Hypersonic weapons can fly faster than Mach 5 — or more than 3,836 miles per hour — but their ability to maneuver between varying altitudes sets them apart. Their maneuverability makes them much harder to detect and defeat. The Army conducted a successful end-to-end flight test of its hypersonic missile at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii in May 2024, bringing the initial fielding to the first unit closer to the horizon. The Army and Navy completed another successful all-up round test in December at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, of the Common Hypersonic Glide Body, or C-HGB. The test provided additional confidence to move forward with the system, which consists of a weapon's warhead, guidance system, cabling and thermal protection. The Navy's version, dubbed Conventional Prompt Strike, will be launched from ships. While the plan to field the weapon to the Army has taken nearly two years longer than planned, Army officials have been quick to point out that missile development programs typically take about 10 years. The LRHW program is just beyond the five-year mark.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Army to make new missile-defense radars after year of troubleshooting
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army is just weeks away from making a production decision for its new missile defense radar, following an extra year of ironing out any kinks, according to Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, the service's program executive officer for missiles & space. The Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, 'is a huge, significant capability,' Lozano said in an exclusive interview with Defense News at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. 'We anecdotally say it doubles legacy Patriot radar capability and not only does it double it, it provides you 360-degree capability.' The radar is a major modernization element for the Army's Integrated Air and Missile Defense system along with a fully modernized command-and-control capability called the Integrated Battle Command System, which is already fielded. Building the radar rapidly – the Army awarded a contract to Raytheon in 2019 to deliver prototypes over five years – 'was always going to be incredibly technically challenging,' Lozano said. So, Lozano said he asked former Army acquisition chief Doug Bush for another year to mature the system. 'I said, 'Sir, we're really close, but we're just not there yet. I'm not exhibiting the level of performance that I would feel comfortable coming in for a Milestone C production decision,'' he said. Bush, who had the authority to grant such a request, did so, according to Lozano. The office continued to keep Army and Pentagon leadership apprised of the effort and now, following several successful flight tests, including one that combined other major air and missile defense elements over last fall and early this year, the system is deemed ready for low-rate initial production, Lozano said. While an Inspector General report recently criticized the program for lacking proper due diligence, Lozano disagreed with the characterization. 'We did provide the requisite oversight and so much so that we, as leaders, knew we needed a little bit more time for the system to mature. We got the time. We did the maturation.' The program office provided Army decision makers with a brief advocating to approve LTAMDS' for production at the end of February. 'It's our intent to have that signed in the next week or two,' he said. The Army's low-rate production lot will be roughly 10 radars. The service plans to build 94 radars total over the course of the program. Raytheon will also be building Poland's 10 LTAMDS radars on order simultaneously. Poland is the first foreign customer for the system. Currently the time to build an LTAMDS is about 40 months on the production line, Lozano said. But the Army is working with Raytheon and has hired the Boston Consulting Group to help work on supply chain management in order to make that 36 months, which is the formal program objective. 'From a cost perspective, I think there's a huge win here,' Lozano said. The program's estimated cost is now $13 billion across its life. 'It's a huge program, and it's likely going to be within the Army inventory for multiple decades. Because it's a digital radar that is software driven, it's going to mature and keep pace with the evolving threat,' he said. Lozano also noted that with the cost of microelectronics coming down and the efforts to miniaturize components, the level of efficiency will increase, capabilities will increase and costs will continue to come down for the system. 'We build the legacy Patriot radar for $110-$115 million a copy,' he noted. 'Right now the initial cost of the LTAMDS radar is about $125-$130 million a copy. That cost will continue to come down. We're building the newest, most advanced radar at almost the same exact price that we're building the legacy radar.' The Army low-rate production period will last roughly two-and-a-half years. The service is planning for the LTAMDS initial operational test and evaluation to take place in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. After that assessment, the service will send one of the sensors to Guam, which will join two other LTAMDS that are about to be delivered to the island in the coming months. The systems will be a part of a larger air and missile defense architecture there. The Army plans to reach full-rate production in 2028, Lozano said.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
US Army ships its newest air-defense tech to units in Asia, Europe
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army plans to send major elements of its most modernized air and missile defense capabilities to the Pacific and European theaters, according to Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, program executive officer for missiles and space. For example, the service will send two of its Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensors, or LTAMDS, to Guam, Lozano told Defense News in an exclusive interview at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. Additionally, the Army will send an Indirect Fire Protection Capability platoon with prototype launchers to South Korea and will also send some of its Integrated Battle Command System capability to Europe to modernize a Patriot air defense battalion there. Lozano had been tasked by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to examine the possibility of sending new air and missile defense capabilities still in the prototype phase to global hotspots. Both the Raytheon-developed LTAMDS and Leidos' Dynetics-made IFPC have seen successful test events over the past year, leading to George's push for testing advanced technology in real-life formations even before the development phase has formally concluded. LTAMDS is nearing a production decision and will then go into initial operational test and evaluation that will wrap up in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. Another LTAMDS radar will be sent to Guam in 2027, which will put three of the powerful, 360-degree radars on the island as part of complete air and missile defense architecture there. The Army is taking its two best performing prototypes, which are now being spruced up after developmental testing with Raytheon, and will begin preparing to ship the radars to Guam in May. They should arrive in June, Lozano said. The service developed LTAMDS to replace the current radar in Patriot air and missile defense systems, improving its detection and discrimination capability and giving it the ability to see threats from 360 degrees. The IFPC platoon will go to South Korea to help the Army work on concepts to create a composite air- and missile-defense battalion. This effort is being led by Brig. Gen. Pat Costello, commander of the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command in the Pacific theater. The IFPC system is designed to detect, track and defeat cruise missiles and drones as well as rockets, artillery and mortars at fixed and semi-fixed sites. It currently fires AIM-9X missiles but the Army is pursuing alternative interceptor options. The Army is also taking some of its pre-low-rate initial production IBCS capability, which is a new command-and-control system for the service's Patriot air and missile defense system, to modernize the 5-7 Patriot Air Defense Battalion in the 10th AAMDC in Europe. IBCS equipment is now on a ship and will arrive next month, Lozano said. While this is the first IBCS capability to be received by a unit outside of the United States, Poland was the first to get the system for its own Patriot forces in 2023.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Yahoo
US Army plans Australia test of missile launcher that has irked China
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The U.S. Army plans to conduct a live shot with its Typhon missile system in Australia this summer during the Talisman Sabre exercise, marking the first firing of the long-range strike weapon on foreign soil, according to Maj. Gen. Frank Lozano, program executive officer for missiles and space. The Army will deploy its second battery and will fire an SM-6 missile from the system's launcher, he told Defense News in an exclusive interview at Redstone Arsenal amid the Association of the U.S. Army's Global Force Symposium. The other Typhon battery, also referred to as the Mid-Range Capability missile system, was transported to Luzon, Philippines, in the spring of 2024 as part of the Salaknib exercise, marking the first time the new capability, deemed vital to the U.S. Army's Indo-Pacific strategy, was deployed. The mobile, ship-sinking system has remained in the country since then, much to the disapproval of China. The Typhon launcher traveled more than 8,000 miles from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, aboard a C-17 Globemaster cargo aircraft on a 15-hour flight. The Army has not conducted any live-fire exercises with the system in the Philippines yet and does not plan to do so during this year's Salaknib or Balikatan, which will kick off later this spring. The Lockheed Martin-built system, consisting of a vertical launch system that uses the Navy's Raytheon-built Standard Missile-6 and Tomahawk missiles, can strike targets in the 500- to 2,000-kilometer range. The complete system has a battery operations center, four launchers, prime movers and modified trailers. Defense News first reported the Army's plan to pursue the midrange missile in September 2020. The Army fielded the capability in less than three years. While the first Typhon battery belongs to the 1st Multidomain Task Force in the Pacific, the second battery is for the 3rd MDTF. The Army is building these formations to be dedicated to specific theaters and designed to address specific military needs in those regions. There will be five MDTFs in total and three will be dedicated to the Pacific. The 2nd MDTF is in Europe and the 5th, which has yet to be formed, will be stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and will be designed for rapid deployment where it is needed. The first two batteries were fielded to JBLM and the Army is now getting ready to take receipt of the third battery from its producers, according to Lozano. That battery will go to Europe's 2nd MDTF. The service obligated funds last year to build the fourth battery, he noted.
