TEWKSBURY, Mass., Feb. 17, 2012. Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) recently completed Demonstration Test 1 (DT-1), proving its ability to track targets and integrate with fire control and tactical data link systems. A series of demonstration tests were conducted at the Utah Training and Test Range from early November to mid-December 2011. The test included tracking moving ground and surface water targets. The JLENS system communicates with targeting data over command and control systems, such as Link-16, and interfaces with combat identification support systems such as IFF (Identify Friend or Foe), to discriminate between friendly and hostile aircraft and missiles.
Providing a joint service capability, the JLENS system consists of two tethered 74-meter aerostats. One aerostat elevates a surveillance radar to 10,000 feet, providing coverage out for hundreds of miles over land and sea. The other aerostat elevates a fire-control radar. Each of the aerostat platforms has the capability to integrate other communications and sensor systems.
During live-fire tests later this year, JLENS will be tested on its ability to detect airborne threats and transmit targeting data to surface-based air and missile defense systems that will engage test targets. In the meantime, testing continues in Utah and at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
