Raytheon awarded $2.3 million contract to study integrated CNS

Raytheon press release:

Raytheon Company has been awarded a seven-month, firm-fixed-price contract to study the NextGen Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance architecture and determine the National Airspace System’s needs for 2018 to 2025. [..]
The study analyzes ICNS interfaces to operator flight planning systems, aircraft capabilities, avionics functions and Federal Aviation Administration automation systems.
The $2.3 million contract was awarded by the NextGen Institute, a venture between the National Center for Advanced Technologies and the FAA. [..]
The Raytheon-led team includes Rockwell Collins, ARINC, Aviation Management Associates and Thales.

TDDS contract goes to Raytheon; will be SWIM-compliant

The DOT has chosen a Raytheon-led team (press release) to develop and roll out the Terminal Data Distribution system, which will:

automate flight information, resulting in improved capacity in the nation’s airspace. It will facilitate the exchange of net-enabled data between disparate systems and integrate multiple data sources to better manage the airspace.

More information about TDDS can be found here and in this highly technical overview. Briefly stated, it will interface with the Tower Data Link System (TDLS), the En Route Automation Modernization System (ERAM), Runway Visual Range (RVR), and other platforms and applications.

As had been planned from beginning of the TDDS project, Raytheon’s system will be SWIM-compliant. The System-wide Information Management architecture is designed to provide the means for disparate platforms and vendors to exchange data securely and in near real-time.

NASA to fund radical thinking on the future of commercial flight

The aeronautics research arm of NASA has awarded $12.4 million in grants to six teams, who will develop advanced concepts for commercial aircraft that could enter service around 2035 (press release). The teams, which include industry giants like Northrop-Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, as well as researchers from MIT, Purdue, Georgia Tech and Tufts, will focus on three key areas: aircraft that could operate from small airports, subsonic airliners, and supersonic jets.

All concepts are expected to be dramatically cleaner, quieter, and more fuel efficient than today’s models. NASA’s website includes details for each project as well as highly imaginative artist renderings.

[Kudos to Graham Warwick from Aviation Week for spotting this story; his article includes reactions and analysis and can be found here.]

Gloomy outlook for defense biz; contractors looking to IT, training, logistics

Monday’s Washington Post provides some good context around the economic conditions faced by large government contractors. The article’s subhead — “After Eight Boom Years for Spending on Military Equipment, Contractors Expect a Slowdown” — points to looming uncertainty in the defense sector, but also outlines alternative strategies being pursued by Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and others:

With nearly 60 percent of its $42 billion in annual sales coming from the Defense Department, Lockheed Martin is pursuing other areas of business to compensate for any slowdown in defense spending. For the past eight years, the Bethesda company has tried to expand its information technology services business. Already, it expects double-digit sales growth in that unit this year compared with last year. [..]
Bob Trice, senior vice president of Lockheed’s business development unit, said the defense industry is likely to see fewer new weapons programs. For Lockheed, “we’re already laser-focused on [information technology] and we will continue to be and we’ll do the same with logistics and maintenance.”

Raytheon of Waltham, Mass., has begun to diversify by making several acquisitions to bolster its cyber-security capabilities. It also has landed two lucrative training deals: One is a contract worth as much as $11 billion with Falls Church-based CSC and General Dynamics to do training for the Army; another is a 10-year contract to provide training support to the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controllers for $437 million.

One mildly ironic sidenote: earlier this year, the Post ran this article entitled “Little Trace of Slowdown for Defense Contractors.”

$88 million goes to Raytheon for WAAS

The FAA has announced it will exercise its option to retain Raytheon Corp. for follow-on services related to the Wide Area Augemntation System (WAAS). As this award announcement lays out, the company will be paid $88 million for hardware and software upgrades, and additional engineering support meant to specifically improve so-called LPV-200 service (Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance).

Raytheon wins DoD, FAA radar contract

Raytheon Co. has won an order from the Department of Defense and FAA worth up to $679 million to install 116 Digital Airport Surveillance radar systems at Air Force and civilian airports around the world, The Associated Press reports. The radar will replace analog systems nearly 30 years old, according to Bloomberg.