Landshield® marks a decade of versatile innovation

In the face of escalating electronic warfare threats, Raytheon UK’s Landshield® and Landshield® Plus have emerged as pivotal technologies, safeguarding military operations by ensuring the integrity of critical GPS signals. As adversaries advance their electronic warfare capabilities, the need for robust anti-jamming solutions has never been more critical.

Landshield’s decade of technological evolution underscores Raytheon UK’s commitment to innovation and adaptability, meeting the diverse needs of modern warfare across multiple domains.

“Landshield’s evolution has been driven by customer need and a demand for broader application across naval platforms and drones,” said Landshield Programme Manager, Joseph. “This adaptability underscores our commitment to listening and responding to our customers’ evolving needs, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of defence technology and operational requirements.”

Agile design architecture

Initially designed for land platforms in 2015, Raytheon UK’s Landshield programme has delivered significant customer-driven innovations over the past decade. This evolution has allowed the product to transcend its initial purpose, now qualifying for use across land, sea, and air.

This transformation demonstrates Landshield’s adaptability to new environments and platforms and reflects Raytheon UK’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of what’s technically possible.

The current portfolio – Landshield 4 Element and Landshield Plus 7 Element – features integrated Antennae and best-in-class size, weight, and performance (SWaP) that provide unmatched efficiency by combining compact design with robust functionality. Raytheon UK has also developed variants without integrated Antennae (AE) to suit different customer requirements and a new 10-channel variant of the Landshield Plus capable of tackling nine simultaneous jammers. This advanced configuration enhances situational awareness and strengthens defence mechanisms against sophisticated jamming tactics.

“Landshield was developed to be flexible, allowing multiple configurations and element counts” - Ian, lead engineer.

The product’s modularity has been pivotal, allowing Raytheon UK to custom-tailor the product family to requirements, even in demanding environments. From enduring severe maritime corrosion to seamlessly fitting onto airborne platforms, Landshield and Landshield Plus have proven resilient and adaptable.

“Our Landshield solution was developed to be flexible, allowing multiple configurations and element counts,” said Ian, Raytheon UK’s lead engineer, Assured Positioning, Navigation & Timing. “Our foresight has paid off and allowed us to deliver tailored solutions without compromising on performance.”

Pushing the envelope

Landshield Plus, issued in May 2019 with its seven-element configuration, exemplified the engineering team’s proactive approach to pushing the boundaries of anti-jamming technology.

Since then, the team’s significant software updates have enhanced countermeasures against multiple jammers and spoofing attempts. Both Landshield and Landshield Plus incorporate advanced spoofing detection to identify fake GPS signals that could deceive receivers into calculating incorrect locations. The systems alert operators to these nefarious signals, providing invaluable intelligence on the threat environment. “We’ve also improved Landshield and Landshield Plus’s features beyond anti-jamming for it to function as a sensor,” said Richard, the system design authority for Landshield. 

Providing situational awareness

When multiple vehicles equipped with Landshield systems operate in a network, they can triangulate the precise origin of a jamming or spoofing source. This ability to not only defend against attacks but also provide actionable intelligence represents a significant strategic advantage on the modern battlefield.

“One of the biggest design hurdles was ensuring Landshield’s robustness for deployments while maintaining its compact design” - Richard, system design authority.

 This continuous evolution is key to Raytheon UK maintaining its competitive edge in a rapidly changing field but is not without challenges.

“One of the biggest design hurdles was ensuring Landshield’s robustness for both short and long-term deployments while maintaining its compact design,” said Richard.

“We overcame this by investing in low-power microchips, which has been integral to the product’s success. Landshield’s smaller footprint sets it apart from competitor systems and meets the modern demand for space-efficient solutions,” he explained.

Inside Raytheon's anechoic chamber, one of our engineers aligns a broadband antenna in preparation for a frequency response test of the Landshield Plus unit. The room is designed to both absorb reflections of electromagnetic waves and to prevent outside waves from coming in, allowing a detector to receive the RF energy directly.

Meeting future requirements

Raytheon UK’s engineering team is not just focused on current requirements but is constantly anticipating future needs. This is evident in its ambitious development activities to expand Landshield’s capabilities to handle multiple Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) frequencies beyond the current L1 and L2 GPS frequencies.

This represents a significant leap, as these enhancements will enable extended GNSS coverage, including the American GPS, the European Galileo system, the Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, and other GPS frequencies, all within a unified solution.

“It’s not just about meeting specifications; it’s about exceeding them consistently” - Scott, project engineering manager.

The company’s goal is to provide four or five simultaneous anti-jamming solutions, a feat that necessitates the use of flexible Field Programmable Gate Array implementations.

“We’re pushing the boundaries with our frequency capabilities to cover a variety of global navigation systems. We have prototypes in place already that can deliver these five frequencies simultaneously, paving the way for a new era in anti-jamming technology,” Ian said.

Over the next couple of years, the team plans to transform these prototypes into fully operational products, setting a new standard for the next generation of anti-jamming solutions that meet both current and future customer demands.

“I think that’s definitely one of our key attributes; we always consider what the customer will require next, as opposed to exactly what is being asked of us now,” he said.

While requalifying components is not easy and there is extensive work involved in this approach, the team are unphased.

“It’s not just about meeting specifications; it’s about exceeding them consistently, which ultimately assures our customers of the product’s robustness,” said Scott, project engineering manager, Landshield.

Engineering adaptability

The success of Landshield is a testament to the engineering team’s continuous innovation and adaptability – leveraging digital engineering techniques and advanced modelling that would allow it to refine designs and bring prototype solutions to maturity even more rapidly is amongst current discussions.

“With the unprecedented level of electronic jamming seen in today’s conflicts, there’s a heightened global awareness for robust anti-jam protection,” said Derek, Business Development executive, Assured Positioning, Navigation & Timing. “Landshield Plus has proven operationally very successful, sparking increased interest from NATO forces. We’re securing new global contracts, expanding our capabilities across the land, sea, and air market segments.”

A decade of innovation

As global conflicts present new challenges, Landshield’s integration of rapidly evolving technologies and swift adaptation to diverse operational requirements have been hallmarks of its success.

Reflecting on the past decade, the Landshield portfolio remains a cornerstone in defence technology, embodying a commitment to excellence and adaptability in an ever-evolving battlefield. As Derek aptly put it, “Landshield Plus is among the highest performing anti-jammers in the market, a testament to our relentless pursuit of innovation.”