Raytheon has officially announced the opening of a brand new $72 million, 30,000 square foot facility on its existing Andover, Massachusetts campus.
While Raytheon already houses many state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies at Andover, the advanced manufacturing hub will introduce cutting edge automated machinery to better support the complex range of radar testing and integration taking place there.
“We built the new radar development facility with the future – and our customers – in mind,” said Sarah Jennette, Program Manager for the project. “This advanced manufacturing campus now has the ability to work from atoms all the way up to massive radar arrays.”
According to Raytheon, the radar facility will support manufacturing quality, reliability, repeatability and delivery speed through the use of two near field radar test ranges, one of which is now the largest in the entire company. Consequently, a 1.5 megawatt substation has also been built to meet the immense power requirements of all current and future radar programmes.
With innovation in mind, materials will be able move autonomously via automated guided vehicles, while the aerospace and defence industries very first “duel robotic” system for radar array assembly has also been integrated.
“From physical size, to power capabilities, to automated tech, we are building for the future of radar,” said Jennette. “As the next step in our advanced manufacturing roadmap, it follows on the heels of our recently announced $100 million radar manufacturing plant to be built in Forest, Mississippi.”
The new radar development facility will be the primary location for integration and testing of all current and future radar programs for US and international contracts. AN/SPY-6, the US Navy’s next-generation integrated air and missile defence radar – now in low rate initial production – will be the first system to use the space.
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