"The demonstrations are a positive step toward development of next-generation radar capabilities that are critical for the Army," said Kim Kerry, chief executive officer of ThalesRaytheonSystems, U.S. Operations.

"This advanced capability will ensure that Sentinel radar systems continue to maintain mission-critical status in the fight against terrorism and in areas of operation where their ability to detect and counter a variety of 21st century, tactical threats is necessary."

In a joint initiative with the U.S. Army Cruise Missile Defense Systems program office, TRS successfully demonstrated a version of the U.S. Army's Sentinel air defense radar that operates at a higher power and fulfills a variety of mission roles, including 360-degree counter rocket, artillery and mortar capabilities.

It also provides greater performance on missions against unmanned aerial vehicles. In a modification of the U.S. Army's existing AN/MPQ-64 Improved Sentinel, the radar increases the Sentinel baseline from two power amplifier modules to four.

As the premier air surveillance and target acquisition-tracking sensor for the Army's Cruise Missile Defense Systems program, the Sentinel radar's primary mission is protecting maneuver forces and critical assets from cruise missile, unmanned aerial vehicle and rotary and fixed-wing threats.

The Sentinel accurately acquires targets far enough forward of friendly troops to provide sufficient reaction time for the air defense weapons to engage hostile targets at optimum ranges.

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