A Raytheon Technologies’ illustration depicts the company’s over-the-horizon radar, which will detect and track low-altitude cruise missiles. RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES
THE WATCH STAFF
The U.S Air Force is looking to buy about 6,000 acres, potentially in the Pacific Northwest, to house four long-range radar systems capable of detecting the latest generation of Russian cruise missiles.
The over-the-horizon radar systems (OTHR) will increase the ability of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command to detect threats and fill in gaps in domain awareness.
Canada is also slated to buy two of the radars, said Paul Ferraro, president of air power at Raytheon Technologies, which is planning to bid on the project.
Each radar needs about 1,500 acres, according to the Air Force, so four radar systems would require about 6,000 acres.
“For operational security reasons, we want to limit information on the specific locations, but the plan is to locate our initial two systems in the Northwest United States,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said.
Before the parcels can be cleared for the radar sites, the Air Force and the Army Corps of Engineers will have to complete environmental studies, Stefanek told Defense One, a website specializing in defense and security news.
Meanwhile, Canada is looking at land in southern Ontario for its radars, Jessica Lamirande, a spokeswoman for Canada’s National Defence Department, told the news site.
“Up to four areas” will be required for transmitters and receivers, Lamirande said. “As such, the department is reaching out to private landowners, Indigenous communities, other federal government departments, the Province of Ontario, and local municipalities to determine their interest in selling land to DND for this project.”
The Air Force will start talking to defense industry firms about the bids for its OTHR program in early to mid-2024, Stefanek said.
OTHR will allow NORAD to identify low-flying Russian cruise missiles and will fill gaps in radar defense that allowed a Chinese surveillance balloon to penetrate U.S. and Canadian airspace.
“OTHRs will assist in filling domain awareness gaps in our existing infrastructure by allowing us to better detect and track threats and fuse that data into a globally integrated picture that provides better options to decision makers,” according to a NORAD statement quoted in Defense One.
The Air Force has asked for more than $400 million in its 2024 budget to design, develop, test and field the OTHR program.
Russia has a “threat that is very viable now that was not viable in the past — and that threat is for them to launch a cruise missile over the North Pole through Canada and either into Canada or the United States,” stated Raytheon’s Ferraro.
Such missiles would approach at low altitudes and maneuver in flight, presenting a far different challenge from decades-old intercontinental ballistic missiles, he said.
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