Raytheon shows off its latest creations: Technologies include data-sharing radar, crowd-control device

Jun. 22--PARIS -- Raytheon Co. wants to make airports safer, unruly crowds more manageable and military airplanes smarter.

Raytheon, which has substantial operations in Dallas-Fort Worth, used the Paris Air Show this week to perform some of the first public demos of its new technologies.

For example, the company's booth displayed a system that shares data between military planes via radar, so the pilots and ground staff can see infrared or video footage of a battle scene in real time.

There was also a hands-on demo of the company's Silent Guardian nonlethal microwave weapon, which can sting and incapacitate people.

A Raytheon employee tested the system on a reporter, and it can safely be said the weapon works.

Raytheon also discussed its partnership with Northrop Grumman Corp. and others to build an unmanned surveillance plane to pitch to the Navy.

While unmanned airplanes and helicopters are everywhere at the air show, the Raytheon project stands out because it would use a relatively large Gulfstream II commercial jet.

Finally, Raytheon said it is testing a radar system at three airports in the U.S. -- the company cannot say which ones -- to detect missiles being fired by terrorists at departing or landing airplanes. When the trial run is completed at the U.S. airports, their identities will be announced.

The detection system eventually will be mated with a microwave weapon that can scramble the electronics on the missiles and cause them to miss their targets.

"Clearly, our adversary is changing the way they do things quickly, and we have to be ahead of the curve on that," Michael Proch, the McKinney-based vice president of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in the Space & Airborne Systems division at Raytheon, said in an interview Thursday.

During a demo of the Vigilant Eagle system and its software, a Raytheon employee pointed out how the technology can differentiate between airliners coming in to land and take off, guided missiles fired by an enemy, and defensive missiles fired to shoot down those projectiles.

Israel is using the detection system but has not yet installed the software that fires an electromagnetic beam at the attacking missile, confusing its electronic guidance system.

Raytheon says the electromagnetic arrays could be up and running at airports within the next year or so.

But putting those defensive systems in place in the U.S. could be somewhat controversial. The company notes in its literature that the Vigilant Eagle system probably will result in one or two false alarms per year.

"Initially, some people will react with concern, or even suspicion," said John Patterson, a spokesman for Raytheon's missile systems division.

But he said that once Raytheon has a chance to explain the safety and cost-effectiveness of the system to the flying public, opinions will change.

"We really feel like we're a leader in this area," he said.

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