LandWarfareIntl
Raytheon targets Mobile Range at Middle East
Raytheon used IDEX 2013 as the venue to launch its Mobile Range concept, designed to be a total solution for all complex weapon testing missions.
‘We describe it as a Swiss Army knife range capability that gives you a fully flexible capability,’ Christopher Patschek, department manager RF systems, told Shephard. The company originally developed the concept to augment US ranges such as White Sands, but sees a wider market for the idea.
Mobile Range is an integrated suite of communications, optics and telemetry capabilities installed on a truck and trailer to be deployed anywhere in the world on land, at sea or in the air with minimal support staff or infrastructure. It allows in-country flight testing, demonstrations and data collection in a variety of environments and conditions.
For countries without the time or need to invest in the expense of a fully instrumented range Mobile Range can offer a solution. Officials also said that it could also be used to supplement existing range capabilities. As well as being suitable for land-based capabilities the range instrumentation is fully stabilised to be deployable aboard ships to provide or extend naval ranges.
‘The IDEX international stage is the ideal place to introduce our Mobile Range system that combines the best in communications and telemetry with mobility and affordability,’ said Tom Bussing, vice president of Advanced Missile Systems for Raytheon Missile Systems.
‘Mobile Range can transform test facilities in the Middle East with its quick reaction capability and superior technology,’ he added.
The system combines parabolic or flat-panel antenna systems with remote optics for target and range monitoring and communications. These are controlled from an integrated mobile command centre. Mobile Range includes single, dual, or tri-band antenna feeds, and a universal software control interface.
A range can be set up in as little as four hours, and can also be operated or supported remotely via a network connection. ‘We think it has potential as a revenue stream for countries that are sparsely populated such as here in the UAE,’ Patschek concluded.
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