Friday, June 28, 2002 Contact:
Anti-sniper radar breakthrough funded according to Skeen
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Laguna Industries will assemble a very high technology radar demonstration for research on how to counter the terrible threat from snipers targeting our soldiers. The House of Representatives provided the money in the 2003 Military Appropriation Bill passed on June 27.
The Rapid Target Acquisition and Tracking System (RTATS) will be a laser radar that can rapidly deploy on a High Mobility Multipurpose Vehicles (HMMV). The radar will immediately pinpoint the exact location of an enemy rifleman in a building or in camouflaged vegetation. The HMMV has the ability to transport the RTATS over rough terrain in open country. It can then maneuver in the confined quarters of a city. This will mean close coverage of our troops as they move into the extremely hazardous environment of street fighting.
“Fighting in cities is the worst nightmare of an infantryman. I believe that the RTATS will be one of the most important technical breakthroughs we can provide for our soldiers and Marines,” according to Congressman Skeen.
The RTATS was developed by Trex Enterprises of San Diego and will be integrated by Laguna Industries on to the HMMV.
According to Trex company president Anne Pol, “Trex has been impressed with the maturity and depth of experience at the Laguna Industries facility. The Laguna experience with testing other sophisticated electronics in the field environment provides confidence that the integrated RTATS system will be useful to U.S. troops almost immediately.”
After initial testing on the Laguna Reservation the system will undergo military testing at the White Sands Missile Range.
The development of RTATS will provide several business opportunities to Laguna. Potential customers for the system include law enforcement agencies, like the border patrol, and tracking instrumentation for test ranges.