L-3, Rockwell Collins nab Air Force GPS deals

L-3 Communications Inc. and Rockwell Collins Inc. have won contract awards to develop new global positioning system technology for the Air Force.

Interstate Electronics Corp., a unit of L-3, will design and develop GPS receiver technology for future military requirements under a $37 million Air Force contract. The contract could be worth up to $90.6 million if future options are exercised, the company said.

Interstate's design is intended to reduce production costs and add flexibility to military applications such as gun-fired projectiles, aircraft avionics and handheld GPS data units. The company's architecture will allow the production of receivers and higher-level systems to be produced in unclassified production facilities.

The work is being done under the Air Force Modernized USER Equipment (MUE) program by the NAVSTAR Global Positions System joint program office.

Under a $28 million Air Force contract, Rockwell Collins will develop next-generation GPS technology for the MUE Receiver Card Development program. Specifically, the company will support the preliminary design of modernized receiver cards for ground and airborne applications.

The contract work, which was awarded by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, represents the user equipment portion of a next-generation GPS system that will add new military signal and security architecture, Rockwell Collins said. The new technology is intended to improve anti-jam capabilities.

L-3 of New York ranks No. 7 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal government IT contractors. Rockwell Collins ranks No. 25 on the list.

Mary Mosquera is a staff writer for Washington Technology's sister publication, Government Computer News.