US Commissions Hypersonic Radome Research
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A radome is simply the covering in front of a radar that protects it but allows signals through – on a fighter plane’s nose, an AWACS plane’s back, or what have you. That’s something of challenge, however, when the vehicle is moving at Mach 5-10 and has to cope with the tremendous heat created by air friction. See “Australia, USA Collaborating on Hypersonic Research” for more coverage of current research into hypersonic vehicles, missiles, and launch systems.
Along with that research comes its obvious corollary: research into radomes that can remain effective and survive hypersonic speeds…
March 27/07: Raytheon Co. in Tucson, AZ received an $11.1 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development efforts for high temperature development, material test and evaluation, radome conceptual design, and manufacturing and test planning of wideband radome technology for next generation hypersonic vehicles.
Work will be performed in Tucson, AZ and is expected to be complete in May 2012. This contract was competitively procured via a Broad Agency Announcement, with 5 offers received by The Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, CA (N68936-07-C-0003).
Feb 26/07: ATK COI Ceramics Incorporated, DBA Engineered Ceramics in San Diego, CA won a $10.6 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research and development efforts for high temperature development, material test and evaluation, radome conceptual design, and manufacturing and test planning of wideband radome technology for next generation hypersonic vehicles. Work will be performed in San Diego, CA and is expected to be complete in March 2012. This contract was competitively procured via a Broad Agency Announcement, with 5 offers received by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, CA (N68936-07-C-0007).
