RAIVEN multispectral sensor looks to close gaps in legacy EO/IR systems

RT-1000, the first version of RAIVEN, will support a wide array of missions, including the US Army’s Future Vertical Lift modernisation effort. First flight tests are scheduled for 2024. (Raytheon)

Raytheon’s new multispectral, artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensor and targeting platform, dubbed RAIVEN, was the company’s attempt to close emerging capability gaps in legacy EO/IR systems developed in the post 9/11 era.

“There was a … demand for EO/IR products during the global war on terror and so we developed a whole bunch of different variants and different size classes of multispectral targeting systems for it,” said Torrey Cady, vice-president of Surveillance and Targeting Systems at Raytheon Intelligence & Space.

“But as we pivoted from the global war on terror [to] great power competition … we realised we really needed to do an update to our technology because the next fight is going to be different from the way we’ve been fighting,” he said during an 8 May interview with Janes.