12th ballistic missile defense radar on assembly line TEWKSBURY, Mass., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Raytheon announced Wednesday it has begun building the 12th AN/TPY-2 ballistic missile defense radar for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The AN/TPY-2 is a mobile X-band radar that provides long-range acquisition, precision tracking and discrimination of short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. It can be deployed in either terminal or forward-based mode. "Beginning production of a 12th AN/TPY-2 ballistic missile defense radar is so important because this X-band sensor is the backbone of U.S. missile defense around the globe," said Dave Gulla, vice president of Global Integrated Sensors in Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. The U.S., our warfighters, allies and security partners can count on the AN/TPY-2 because it has performed flawlessly in every test to date against all categories of ballistic missiles. Production of the 12th AN/TPY-2 comes under a $172.2 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense awarded this month. Raytheon has delivered eight of the radars to the U.S. military under an earlier contract.