Raytheon JLENS swarm boat weapon touted

Raytheon, one of the active defense companies out there that have seem to made their fair share of waves in the news recently, has touted the successful testing of their Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) against naval swarm boats sometime in the middle of this year. The JLENS’ ability to target swarm boats in the Great Salt Lake were put to a drill, and it passed the test with flying colors, using the radar’s ability to track multiple fast and high speed vessels while giving a ship commander the situational awareness of all possible threats which he might face in the open seas.

The JLENS system is comprised of a couple of aerostats which can float up to 10,000 feet off the ground, delivering radar and communication capabilities so that one has a bird’s eye view on over-the-horizon threats, while delivering details and information to a gamut of weapons systems. When will JLENS be able to see action on the battlefield? It is rather hard to tell, but I do wonder what kind of defense mechanisms that JLENS has against attacks from missiles and RPGs.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Military
Tags: raytheon