The US Air Force (USAF) has selected an industry team of Raytheon and FlexRadio to develop and qualify an airborne high-frequency (HF) radio.

The Raytheon-FlexRadio team secured a $36m other transaction agreement (OTA) contract with Consortium Management Group (CMG).

Go deeper with GlobalData

Data Insights

The gold standard of business intelligence.

Find out more

Related Company Profiles

View all

CMG awarded the OTA on behalf of Consortium for Command, Control and Communications in Cyberspace (C5) to meet the US Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s needs.

The industry team will develop a new HF radio capable of enabling beyond-line-of-sight long-distance communication for aircrews.

Raytheon Integrated Communication Systems vice-president Barbara Borgonovi said: “High-frequency radios provide the military with secure communications in an increasingly complex and congested threat environment.

“Raytheon’s partnership with FlexRadio combines commercial innovation with advanced military hardening techniques to rapidly deliver a next-generation operational capability that supports strategic and tactical missions.”

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

The team is one of the two contract awardees for the radio development programme. The contract involves 31 months of performance, which will be followed by the USAF selecting one team to advance the programme to the production stage.

FlexRadio CEO Gerald Youngblood said: “Worldwide high-frequency communications is what our commercial customers do every day using virtually every mode of operation and type of propagation.

“Our partnership brings together the vast resources and experience of Raytheon in airborne tactical communications systems with FlexRadio’s commercial off-the-shelf high-frequency software-defined radios to deliver a modular, extensible, and flexible communications platform for the warfighter.”

The partnership will adapt FlexRadio’s SmartSDR/FLEX-6000 architecture ‘for HF modernisation of airborne communications platforms’, FlexRadio said in a release.

In July, the USAF selected L3Harris Technologies to develop a prototype for the L3Harris Falcon Wideband Airborne HF Radio as part of the programme to replace the USAF’s AN/ARC-190 airborne HF radio.