HARLOW, England, May 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) has contracted Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) to upgrade four additional Airport Surveillance Radar sites following the successful implementation of the first Wind Farm Mitigation upgrade at RNLAF's Woensdrecht Air Base. The upgrade includes technology enhancements, including WiMax interference filtering (4G filtration), and should be completed within the next 12-15 months.

Wind turbines' rotating blades generate large, moving, false targets that can deluge radars, rendering it difficult for controllers to discriminate between false and genuine aircraft targets. The upgrade comes through a combination of hardware and software changes to the primary surveillance radar system. These changes nullify the presence of wind turbines and significantly improve the probability of detection of aircraft targets, both above and beyond wind farms. The application of this technology at Woensdrecht  facilitates the extension of a nearby wind farm without impacting flying operations at the base.

Richard Daniel, managing director of Raytheon UK's Defense and Air Traffic Management business, said, "This program represents the culmination of nearly three years of research and development effort to upgrade the complete air traffic control radar system with technology to mitigate the adverse effects on radar performance caused by wind turbines. We are delighted with the progress made so far, and look forward to working with the Royal Netherlands Air Force across their remaining sites."

Having demonstrated high detection probabilities in the Netherlands, Raytheon is now in discussions with customers in Europe, the United States and Canada for the deployment of this suite of mitigation solutions.

About Raytheon UK

Raytheon UK is a subsidiary of Raytheon Company. It is a prime contractor and major supplier to the UK Ministry of Defence and has developed strong capabilities in mission systems integration in defense, national security and commercial markets. Raytheon UK also designs, develops and manufactures a range of high-technology electronic systems and software at facilities in Harlow, Glenrothes, Uxbridge, Waddington and Broughton.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2012 sales of $24 billion and 68,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, security and civil markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 91 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems; as well as a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @raytheon.

Note to Editors

Raytheon has been applying its radar and signal data processing expertise to develop and implement solutions that allow wind turbines to be safely located near radar facilities. The Raytheon upgrade offers major enhancements in the target channels with concurrent processing of high and low beam targets across the full instrumented range. Clutter level identification is enhanced and clutter suppression is improved for non-stationary targets. The system also preserves radar sensitivity in areas of wind turbines and other strong clutter points, while the interactive, multiple-target-model tracking reduces false alarms and improves track accuracy in high clutter environments.

Media Contact 
Nick West 
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internationalpr@raytheon.com

SOURCE Raytheon Company