De acuerdo a las estimaciones de los Organismos de Inteligencia de EUA, habría más e 6300 misiles balísticos fuera del control de la alianza US / NATO, Rusia y China, y se aprecia que ese número ascendería 8000 en el año 2020. Muchos países desarrollan cabezas de guerra nucleares, químicas y biiológicas y al mismo tiempo hacen sus misiles más flexibles, confiables y precisos. El primer paso para neutralizar esas amenazas, es detectarlas cuando han sido disparadas, siendo entonces el elemento crítico n todo sistema antimisiles, disponer de un radar que continuamente monitoree el espacio aéreo.. La empresa RAYTHEON ha desarrollado el radar AN/TPY-2, corazón de sistema THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Aerial Defence) System que ha demostrado una notable eficacia en la detección y adquisición de todo tipo de misiles balísticos.
The first step in defeating a ballistic missile that has been fired is “seeing” it. And that’s where Raytheon’s AN/TPY-2 X-Band radar comes in. A critical element in the Ballistic Missile Defense System, AN/TPY-2 continually searches the sky for ballistic missiles. Once it detects a missile, it acquires it, tracks it, and uses its powerful radar and complex computer algorithms to discriminate between the warhead and non-threats such as countermeasures.
Depending on the needs of the warfighter, the AN/TPY-2 radar can be deployed in two different modes. In forward-based mode, the radar is positioned near hostile territory, and acquires ballistic missiles in the boost (ascent) phase of flight, shortly after they are launched. It then tracks and discriminates the threat, and passes critical information required by decision makers to the Command and Control Battle Management network.
When the AN/TPY-2 radar is deployed in terminal mode, the radar’s job is to detect, acquire, track and discriminate ballistic missiles in the terminal (descent) phase of flight. The terminal-mode AN/TPY-2 also leads the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense ballistic missile defense system by guiding the THAAD missile to intercept a threat.
AN/TPY-2 has a record of flawless performance against all classes of ballistic missiles. In forward-based mode, it has proven capability against short-, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. In terminal mode, AN/TPY-2 has demonstrated its ability to enable an intercept of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.
Raytheon has delivered ten AN/TPY-2s to date, and is in the process of building two more for the U.S. customer, and two for international partners. These radars are an important step in the right direction to meeting the growing U.S. and international demand for an affordable, proven system that can stay ahead of the increasing ballistic missile threat.
