Raytheon to boost Army satellite comms

Raytheon Co. will manufacture and install upgrade kits for the Army's satellite communications system and greatly increase its bandwidth capabilities.

The $86.7 million award, part of an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract originally awarded to Raytheon in 2007, increases the total contract value to $183.3 million.

The upgrade will consist of advanced extremely high frequency (AEHF) kits installed on Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical terminals, or SMART-Ts, for the Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. They also will used by Canada and the Netherlands.

AEHF is the Defense Department's primary system to provide highly protected satellite communications through 2020. The kits will quadruple the data rate of existing SMART-T systems, Raytheon said.

The upgrades incorporate Raytheon's innovations in protected satellite communications and will provide warfighters with increased bandwidth for real-time video, battlefield mapping and targeting data, said Jerry Powlen, Raytheon's vice president of Network Centric Systems Integrated Communications Systems.

Raytheon, of Waltham, Mass., ranks No. 6 on Washington Technology's 2007 Top 100 list of the largest federal government prime contractors.