The design, development and testing of the THAAD (Theater High Altitude Area Defense) solid state phased array (formerly ground based radar)

Author

Sarcione, M. ; Mulcahey, J. ; Schmidt, D. ; Chang, K. ; Russell, M. ; Enzmann, R. ; Rawlinson, P. ; Guzak, W. ; Howard, R. ; Mitchell, M.

Author_Institution

Raytheon Electron. Syst., Sudbury, MA, USA

fYear

1996

fDate

15-18 Oct 1996

Firstpage

260

Lastpage

265

Abstract

This paper describes the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) solid state phased arrays design, development and testing. It is the largest most complex solid state phased array built in the world, employing more than 25,000 active radiators each with a corresponding gallium arsenide (GaAs) transmit/receive (T/R) module. The array operates in several aperture illumination modes, is self calibrating in the field, transportable and designed to be “fail soft”. The array´s performance has been verified on a near-field range and during radar search and track missions of satellites and missiles at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR)

Keywords

active antenna arrays; antenna phased arrays; antenna testing; military equipment; radar antennas; radar tracking; search radar; GaAs; GaAs transmit/receive module; THAAD; Theater High Altitude Area Defense; aperture illumination mode; design; development; fail soft; ground based radar; missiles; performance; radar search; radar tracking; satellites; solid state phased array; testing; transportable radar; Apertures; Communication system control; Electronic equipment testing; Gallium arsenide; Missiles; Phased arrays; Radar tracking; Sensor arrays; Solid state circuits; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Phased Array Systems and Technology, 1996., IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3232-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PAST.1996.566096

Filename

566096