ThalesRaytheonSystems has announced that the U.S. Army will procure 56 Improved Sentinel Battlefield Air Defense AN/MPQ-64 Radars. ThalesRaytheonSystems has already delivered more than 220 radars to customers worldwide. The company is working with several allied nations to leverage the current production to meet their sensing requirements.

The AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar is a three-dimensional, phased-array radar system that operates in the X-band frequency range. The primary mission is to automatically detect, track, identify and report airborne threats, including aircraft, cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The Sentinel radar capabilities are suited for a wide range of missions including air defense and missile systems coordination, and homeland defense, as well as infrastructure, asset and special event protection.

"The Sentinel battlefield radar not only meets the needs of today's soldier, but will grow and evolve as requirements, threats and the mission changes," said Kim Kerry, chief executive officer, ThalesRaytheonSystems, U.S. Operations.

"With a low-risk modernization roadmap, the Sentinel radar is one of the most cost-effective and reliable radar systems available to our armed forces."

ThalesRaytheonSystems' radar capabilities span short-, medium-, and long-range systems. The ground-based radars are capable of detecting both conventional and unconventional threats for homeland and tactical air defense, counter-battery and weapons system coordination.