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Raytheon [RTN] last week unveiled a new focal plane array that it says is four times larger that infrared detectors currently in production and will provide major advances in space-based sensing while making it easier and less costly to design and build such sensors.
The new "4K-by-4K" light-wave detector has two key features, a wide dynamic range and high frame rate, that provides sensors, and potential customers, with "game changing" applications, Doug Marimon, senior program manager with Raytheon's Space Systems business, told reporters on a conference call. These applications include ballistic missile defense, not only warning of a launch but throughout a missile's flight trajectory, climate and environmental monitoring, and astronomy, he said.
For missile warning, Marimon said that a "dim event" could be seen more quickly than with current assets. For environmental monitoring, the larger...