Raytheon

Raytheon's latest radar technology may be handy not only for zapping people, but making popcorn, too.

At the recent Association of the U.S. Army Expo in Hunstville, AL, the company showed off a new radar for the Patriot missile system that uses gallium-nitride (GaN) to generate the radar waves. This solid-state radar system could be the key not only to better radar, but also to improving the Pentagon's crazy futuristic pain ray, mounting non-lethal weapons on airplanes, and, just maybe, building better microwaves.

All-Seeing Radar

The first radars were built around big vacuum tubes like the Magnetron in your microwave oven. Lately, though, military radar systems have started to use sold-state technology rather than a vacuum-tube. It might be compared to an LED that emits radio waves rather than light. Blocks of dozens of the solid-state emitters make up a flat active electronically-scanned array with no moving parts. The previous solid-state technology—gallium arsenide—was underpowered, but Raytheon has spent 17 years and some $200 million in research to develop the new GaN technology, which handles more power and is more efficient than gallium arsenide. It also produces less radio "noise," on its way to creating a more effective long-range radar beam.

This new radar for the Patriot is not Raytheon's first GaN product—the company makes a radar and jamming system for the Navy—but it shows the maturity of the technology. It also has a significant advantage over the old Patriot radar: It has two arrays back-to-back, giving it 360-degree coverage. This is useful if missiles or other targets (such as swarming drones) are coming in from all directions at the same time.

The new radar is a company-funded prototype, developed over the last two years in anticipation of a U.S. Army requirement for an upgrade to the Patriot. That requirement has now appeared in this year's budget for the Army, which calls for a "competitively selected Gallium Nitride (GaN) array antenna."

"We're not always going to kill people in our sights—sometimes we just want them to stop what they're doing."

Mike Nachshen, senior manager for integrated communications at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, told Popular Mechanics that the company exhibited the radar at the Alabama conference to prove the gallium-nitride upgrade "isn't ten years down the road. It's here and it's now." Nachshen says that with a working prototype in hand, the company can start turning out a production version "very rapidly."

Raytheon do not have a monopoly on this technology. Swedish fighter company Saab won an award for its GaN radar work last year, and promises a number of GaN radar products for delivery in 2016. Saab views the solid-state radar as a game-changer for military radar. "It translates to better performance," says developer Niklas Billström. "In concrete terms, it means wattage goes up, component sizes go down, and radar system ranges are extended."

Active Denial

Gallium-nitritde has the potential to go well beyond radar. It could also transform the Pentagon's favorite "non-lethal" ray gun, the Active Denial System, sometimes called the "pain beam". Active Denial uses a beam of short-wavelength microwaves to heat the surface of the target's skin producing what is termed a "repel effect." You might call it "pain." Anyone, however tough they think they are, would flee after a few seconds of exposure.

"It isn't ten years down the road. It's here and it's now."

The Pentagon's Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate says Active Denial is effective at up to a 1,000 meters (more than half a mile). But the current system is based on a supercooled Gyrotron that takes several hours to reach operating temperature. And it's huge. Today's System 2 weighs nine tons, is the size of a shipping container, and requires a truck to transport it.

With GaN, there'd be no need for supercooling, and the beam source can be made be small enough to fit on a vehicle as an addition to existing armament. A new Compact Active Denial system the size of a fridge (36 cubic feet) is now under development, using GaN technology under the name Skid Plate. This could be bolted onto a plate on the top of a Stryker or other tactical vehicle. Unlike the existing Active Denial system, it will be able to start up instantly and fire on the move.

ADC DARPA

A Pentagon video shows the proposed tactical uses of the new Compact ADT. Besides dispersing stone-throwing crowds, other missions include "perimeter security, patrol, convoy protection, and other defensive and offensive missions." It could target a sniper in a crowd of unarmed civilians without the risk of casualties, or provide suppressive fire at the speed of light. It can also stop vehicles approaching a checkpoint or convoy—or at least stop the driver from steering.

Some applications may be more controversial. One tactic, shown at 2:24, is officially referred to as "enhanced combat mobility in dense urban areas, where it quickly and safely moves civilians obstructing vehicle mobility." Basically, it looks like a convoy zapping jaywalking pedestrians out of the way. Similarly, using Active Denial "to safely deter unarmed but suspicious civilians observing U.S. forces"—that is, driving off casual observers—may cause more problems than it solves. The original Active Denial system was shipped to Iraq in 2007 but never used, apparently because of this kind of concern.

Zaps From the Sky

In addition to fitting the Active Denial system to ground vehicles, the military is thinking about adding Compact ADT to drones and AC-130 gunships as a nonlethal weapon option.

"We're not always going to kill people in our sights—sometimes we just want them to stop what they're doing. Active Denial weaponry is key to all of this," Lt Gen Bradley Heithold, commander of US Air Force Special Operations Command, recently told a meeting about directed energy weapons.

Raytheon

Raytheon would not comment directly on the Compact ADT, but it is mentioned in a piece on the company's ultra-secret Rancho Innovations Center (RIC), a self-contained facility specializing in high-power microwave systems. Like the original Gyrotron-based system, the new solid-state version was designed at RIC.

In the longer term, this type of solid state technology may mean more than new gadgets for the military. Seventy years ago, Percy Spencer of Raytheon accidentally discovered microwave cooking when a peanut cluster bar in his pocket melted as he was working with a military-grade Magnetron. Raytheon went on to develop the first microwave ovens as a direct result of this accident.

The new solid-state technology points the way to a new generation of microwave ovens which are quieter, more compact, and more efficient than existing models. Which is likely to be a much bigger (and less controversial) market than pain rays.

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