EL SEGUNDO, Calif., 23 April 2009. Raytheon Company won a $19 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the development and demonstration of technology to detect and locate buried land mines and tunnels .

In Raytheon's plan, a laser radar vibration sensor, or ladar vibrometer, would reveal hidden targets by measuring ground-surface vibrations; it would also use algorithms (electronic instructions for calculation and processing) to interpret the information, says a representative.

The technology demonstrator would integrate the vibrometer with acoustic and seismic sources for field-testing on a moving vehicle.

"This will provide the first capability of real-time acoustic and seismic detection on a mobile platform, with significant improvement in detection stand-off range," says Nick Uros, vice president for Advanced Concepts and Technology, Raytheon Company.