U.S. Air Force selects Raytheon radar for X-62A aircraft

Raytheon has secured a United States Air Force contract to equip the autonomous X-62A Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft, known as VISTA, with its PhantomStrike fire-control radar, expanding the service’s testing of autonomous combat aviation technologies.

According to a press release, Raytheon will integrate the PhantomStrike radar onto the X-62A as part of ongoing Air Force efforts to evaluate autonomy, machine learning, and advanced sensors in tactical aircraft.

The X-62A VISTA is operated by the U.S. Air Force and is based on a modified F-16D Block 30 airframe upgraded with Block 40 avionics. The aircraft serves as a test bed for autonomous flight software, artificial intelligence, and machine-learning applications, allowing the Air Force to explore how future piloted and uncrewed aircraft could operate in contested airspace.

Raytheon said PhantomStrike will support those efforts by providing a compact, air-cooled radar capable of operating within the power and size constraints of experimental and autonomous platforms. The company described PhantomStrike as smaller and lighter than typical active electronically scanned array radars, while requiring less electrical power.

PhantomStrike is designed for use across a range of platforms, including uncrewed aerial vehicles, light-attack aircraft, and rotary-wing aircraft. Raytheon said the radar’s design is intended to support platforms that cannot accommodate larger, power-intensive sensors traditionally used on front-line fighters.

“Autonomous aircraft are poised to play a key role in helping the U.S. maintain air superiority, and Raytheon’s PhantomStrike radar is uniquely designed to help them do it,” said Dan Theisen, president of Advanced Products & Solutions at Raytheon. “This radar is revolutionary in its use of GaN, completely air-cooled technology, and innovation in how we manufacture it – at a lower cost than other modern-day radars.”

According to the company, PhantomStrike uses digital beam forming and steering, supports multimode operation, and allows interleaved air-to-air and air-to-ground targeting. Raytheon said these features enable the radar to perform multiple mission functions without requiring separate sensors.

Company says PhantomStrike delivers fire-control radar performance at nearly half the cost of typical systems in its class, a factor that aligns with Air Force efforts to scale advanced capabilities across larger numbers of aircraft. Cost and manufacturability have become central considerations as the service evaluates how autonomy and advanced sensors could be fielded beyond limited test programs.

The integration of PhantomStrike onto VISTA is expected to support experimentation with autonomous decision-making in sensing and targeting. Air Force officials have previously described the X-62A program as a way to safely test how artificial intelligence can manage complex air combat tasks while remaining under human oversight.