Raytheon and the US Navy are at work setting up the first Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) on the shores of Kauai Island in Hawaii, aiming to begin testing on the Pacific Missile Range Facility in a few weeks. “We just completed the initial low-power light-off of the array,” Tad Dickenson, Raytheon”s AMDR program director, said Thursday, “We have permission to radiate at high power, and we”re working to get to satellite tracking by end of summer.” The radar, designated SPY-(V) by the Navy, will lock on to orbiting sphere also being tracked by a number of other sensors in an effort to calibrate the AMDR”s accuracy, Dickenson said. More tests will follow to test for electro-magnetic interference, then on to warfare tests to include anti-air warfare and ballistic missile defense.
