Raytheon has been awarded a contract to develop and supply a high-bandwidth satellite terminal to the US Air Force (USAF).
Under the approximately $134.4m contract, the company will develop the global aircrew strategic network terminal (Global ASNT), which will transmit emergency messages to aircrews during nuclear and non-nuclear missions.
The terminals delivered as part of the contract are expected to be installed at fixed sites, including wing command posts, nuclear task forces and munitions support squadrons and forward deployed mobile support teams.
Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems business Integrated Communication Systems vice-president Scott Whatmough said, "Our satellite terminals offer strong connectivity and reliability in the harshest of environments."
The Global ASNT forms part of the nuclear command and control system that enables the US president to direct and manage the US military forces.
Specifically, the terminal is expected to offer the ground element of the minimum essential emergency communications network (MEECN) system the capability to receive, evaluate and disseminate emergency action messages (EAMs) and perform alerting functions to initiate aircrew action.
In addition to this, the terminal will provide advanced extremely high frequency (AEHF)/EHF communication waveform capabilities that can function in both fixed site and deployed strategic and non-strategic nuclear execution force missions.
The deployment of terminals is anticipated to commence in 2017.
Raytheon also secured a $70m foreign military sales (FMS) contract to provide in-country spares, software sustainment, and other activities for various full advanced countermeasures electronic systems (ACES) and line replaceable units (LRU) at Warner Robins and Eglin Air Force Bases in the US.
Work under the contract, which supports Morocco, Egypt and Iraq, is scheduled to be carried out at Goleta, California, US, and is expected to be completed by March 2017.
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