Pentagon ends new radar effort meant for Guam missile defense

Early this year, the Pentagon issued a memo halting development of a new radar meant to protect Guam from high-end air and missile threats, according to a May 22 Government Accountability Office report on the effort to protect the strategic island in the Pacific .

“On January 7, 2025, the Deputy Secretary of Defense [Kathleen Hicks] directed the [Missile Defense Agency] to cease development of one of the elements, the AN/TPY-6 radar, but to retain the currently fielded panel as an experimental asset with potential to develop for operational use within the [Guam Defense System] in the future,” the report states.

While Hicks’ decision came at the end of her tenure under the Biden administration, GAO notes the changes are not binding on the new administration.

The Pentagon’s plan to develop an elaborate air-and-missile defense architecture is beginning to take shape and will be pieced together over the coming years in order to protect Guam from increasingly complex threats emerging in China and North Korea.

MDA had shipped its first AN/TPY-6 panel on a boat headed to the island last summer, planning to use it to track a threat launched from a C-17 plane in a first flight test of current capability coming together for the defense of Guam at the end of 2024.

The new radar uses technology from MDA’s Long-Range Discrimination Radar positioned in Alaska at Clear Space Force Base, which will have its own test next year ahead of declaring operational capability.

The Guam Defense System will also rely on a variety of systems still in development, mostly within the Army. The Navy will provide technology and capability from its Aegis weapons system . The land service plans to bring to Guam currently fielded capabilities, like the Patriot system and its Integrated Battle Command System, or IBCS, that connects any sensor and shooter together on the battlefield, as well as Mid-Range Capability missile launchers, which were first fielded at the end of 2023.

The Army will also incorporate Patriot’s radar replacement, the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, which was just approved for production , and its Indirect Fire Protection Capability launchers, which are reaching the end of the prototyping phase.

With the termination of AN/TPY-6, for now, Hicks directed the MDA prioritize remaining Aegis Guam systems development funds “toward delivering minimum viable Aegis C2 [command and control] and datalink capabilities to enable Standard Missile 6 (SM-6) engagements off remote track from AN/TPY-2 and LTAMDS over the JTMC [Joint Track Management Capability] bridge,” according to GAO’s report.

The Pentagon’s memo required upgrading the JTMC bridge to address all missile threats from China and achieve a Joint Tactical Integrated Fire Control capability — the future joint track architecture for Guam — “for coordinated battle management, combat identification and electronic protection,” the report states. Those upgrades should be completed no later than 2029.

The memo also directed MDA to accelerate key command-and-control integration work, including getting the Army-operated Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system to work within IBCS.

Guam is home to a permanent THAAD battery called Task Force Talon, which serves as the critical component for defending the island against ballistic missile threats.

Additionally, the Army and MDA “shall integrate AN/TPY-2 measurement data into IBCS no later than 2030 and achieve full integration by 2033,” the report details.

The MDA has long used AN/TPY-2 radars to track ballistic missiles, but Raytheon just delivered a new version to MDA with Gallium Nitride, or GaN, which gives it the ability to track more complex threats at greater ranges like hypersonic weapons.

The first new radar with GaN will go to the Army’s eight THAAD battery. The radars can be used in a forward-based mode, providing cuing data to systems like the Navy’s Aegis ballistic missile defense system or the Army’s Patriot. It serves as the primary radar for THAAD.

The Army’s new LTAMDS radar, also developed by Raytheon, has GaN technology as well.

Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

据美国政府问责局 5 月 22 日发布的一份关于保护太平洋战略岛屿关岛工作的报告显示，今年年初，五角大楼发布了一份备忘录，停止开发一种旨在保护关岛免受高端空中和导弹威胁的新型雷达。

报告指出：“2025 年 1 月 7 日，国防部副部长凯瑟琳·希克斯指示导弹防御局停止开发其中一个部件——AN/TPY-6 雷达，但保留目前部署的面板作为实验资产，未来有可能发展成为关岛防御系统内的作战设备。”

虽然希克斯的决定是在她拜登政府任期结束时做出的，但美国政府问责局指出，这些变化对新政府没有约束力。

五角大楼正在制定一项复杂的防空反导体系发展计划，该计划将在未来几年逐步完善，以保护关岛免受来自中国和朝鲜日益复杂的威胁。

MDA去年夏天用一艘船将第一块AN/TPY-6面板运往关岛，计划在2024年底用它追踪从C-17飞机上发射的威胁，这是为保卫关岛而进行的首次飞行测试。

新型雷达采用了导弹防御局位于阿拉斯加克利尔太空部队基地的远程识别雷达的技术，该雷达将于明年进行自身测试，之后才会宣布具备作战能力。

关岛防御系统还将依赖于多种仍在研发中的系统，其中大部分由陆军负责。海军将提供其宙斯盾武器系统的技术和能力。陆军计划将目前已部署的装备引入关岛，例如爱国者导弹系统及其集成作战指挥系统（IBCS），该系统可将战场上的任何传感器和武器系统连接起来，以及于2023年底首次部署的中程导弹发射器。

陆军还将采用爱国者导弹系统的雷达替代品——低层防空反导传感器（LTAMDS），该传感器刚刚获准生产，以及其间接火力防护能力发射器，该发射器已接近原型阶段的尾声。

据美国政府问责局 (GAO) 的报告显示，随着 AN/TPY-6 项目的终止，希克斯指示导弹防御局 (MDA) 优先考虑将剩余的宙斯盾关岛系统开发资金用于“提供最低限度可行的宙斯盾 C2（指挥与控制）和数据链能力，以使标准导弹 6 (SM-6) 能够通过联合跟踪管理能力 (JTMC) 桥接，从 AN/TPY-2 和 LTAMDS 远程打击目标”。

五角大楼的备忘录要求升级联合战术导弹指挥中心（JTMC）的桥梁系统，以应对来自中国的所有导弹威胁，并实现联合战术一体化火力控制能力——这是关岛未来联合导弹防御体系的基础——“用于协调作战管理、作战识别和电子防护”，报告指出。这些升级工作最迟应在2029年完成。

该备忘录还指示导弹防御局加快关键的指挥控制集成工作，包括使陆军运营的末段高空区域防御系统（THAAD）在IBCS中运行。

关岛驻扎着一支名为“塔隆特遣队”的永久性“萨德”防御系统，该系统是保卫该岛免受弹道导弹威胁的关键组成部分。

此外，报告还详细说明，陆军和导弹防御局“应最迟于 2030 年将 AN/TPY-2 测量数据整合到 IBCS 中，并在 2033 年实现完全整合”。

美国导弹防御局 (MDA) 长期以来一直使用 AN/TPY-2 雷达来跟踪弹道导弹，但雷神公司刚刚向 MDA 交付了一个采用氮化镓 (GaN) 的新版本，使其能够在更远的距离上跟踪更复杂的威胁，例如高超音速武器。

首批采用氮化镓（GaN）技术的新型雷达将交付陆军第八套“萨德”（THAAD）反导系统。这些雷达可以前沿部署，为海军的“宙斯盾”弹道导弹防御系统或陆军的“爱国者”导弹防御系统等提供引导数据。它同时也是“萨德”系统的主雷达。

陆军的新型LTAMDS雷达也是由雷神公司开发的，同样采用了GaN技术。

珍·贾德森是一位屡获殊荣的记者，为《防务新闻》报道陆地战争。她也曾为《政治报》和《内幕防务》工作。她拥有波士顿大学新闻学硕士学位和凯尼恩学院文学学士学位。