The United States Army’s new missile defense radar is in Guam for operational testing in the Indo-Pacific. The prototype Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS) arrived in the U.S. territory in late July 2025, according to U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who visited Task Force Talon, which will manage the LTAMDS on the island.
The deployment will evaluate the radar in a real-world environment before its formal development is completed, Driscoll told the publication Defense News.
“Our Soldiers on Guam are at the tip of the spear for homeland defense and deserve the very best,” he stated. “We deployed the brand new radar to exercise in an operational environment. This radar will significantly improve the range and lethality of our weapon systems. We’re thrilled to test it in the region and continue making improvements as it comes online.”
Guam is part of the first line of defense against potential adversaries in the Indo-Pacific. About 3,800 kilometers from Beijing, it hosts a significant U.S. military presence. Rising tensions over the Chinese Communist Party’s threats to forcibly annex self-governed Taiwan and North Korea’s ongoing missile provocations have put Guam within reach of increasingly sophisticated threats.
The U.S.-made LTAMDS is designed to replace the radar in the legacy Patriot missile defense system, improving its detection and discrimination capability as well as enabling it to monitor threats from 360 degrees, Defense News reported. The sensor’s primary array generates more than twice the power of the Patriot radar, extending detection beyond 100 kilometers and enhancing tracking precision, according to manufacturer Raytheon Technologies.
The LTAMDS can detect, track and classify multiple high-speed maneuvering targets simultaneously and integrates with the U.S. Army’s integrated air and missile defense battle command system to coordinate intercepts.
LTAMDS prototypes have undergone eight major missile-flight tests and roughly 10,000 hours of environmental and mobility evaluations, according to Defense News. The trials validated performance against short-range ballistic missiles and low-altitude cruise missile surrogates. The radar was approved for production in April 2025 and is slated to reach full production by 2028.
The LTAMDS will join the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on Guam. Two prototypes are in place and a third is scheduled for delivery in 2027. Data from those sensors will feed an integrated architecture designed to coordinate Patriot and THAAD interceptors along with allied assets to defend Guam’s nearly 170,000 residents and critical military installations.
Sentry is a professional military magazine published by U.S. Strategic Command to provide a forum for national security personnel.
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