Raytheon to Upgrade Army Tactical Terminals Under $26 Million Contract
LEXINGTON, Mass.---Raytheon Company will upgrade the U.S. Army's Secure Mobile Anti-Jam Reliable Tactical Terminal (SMART-T) with Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) capability, under provisions of a contract worth $26 million, plus options. The Army's Communications and Electronics Command is the contracting agency. The contract covering the SMART-T DAMA upgrade is a modification to an existing contract, which adds 69 new terminals in FY 1999; an option for 80 new terminals in FY 2000; and an option for retrofit of 42 existing terminals. As many as 191 DAMA-capable SMART-Ts could be delivered to the Army over the next four-years. SMART-T is a low-cost EHF satellite terminal installed on a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. It operates over Milstar I and Milstar II satellites and is considered to be the most robust communication system -- satellite or otherwise -- in deployment today. SMART-T extends the effective range of the Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) to units beyond line-of-sight, allowing widely dispersed warfighters to exchange information with low probability of detection. Its primary mission is to support field commanders by assuring that they have global, robust, jam-resistant and secure communication capability. With DAMA, SMART-T will boost efficient use of Milstar satellites 200 to 300 percent, by reserving this limited communication resource for high-priority message traffic. Using existing communication equipment and infrastructure, the Army will be able to move more information around the battlefield and yet consume less bandwidth. John Oglesby, director of Business Development for Raytheon's Communication Systems Division, Ft. Wayne, Ind., said "The new system will evaluate whether a message really needs to go over the satellite. If it doesn't, that message will be rerouted over MSE so the satellite bandwidth that's regained can be used for the Army's high-priority traffic.'' Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Mass is a global technology leader that provides products and services in the areas of commercial and defense electronics, engineering and construction, and business and special mission aircraft. Raytheon has operations throughout the United States and serves customers in more than 80 countries around the world. Background Notes: **Work will be performed in several Raytheon facilities. Engineering (65 percent of the work) will be performed in Marlborough, Mass. Production (25 percent) will occur in Largo, Fla. Components and circuitry work (10 percent) will be done in Andover, Mass. Completion date is June 30, 2006. **When removed from the HMMWV, SMART-T is capable of operating in the stand-alone mode.
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Raytheon to Upgrade Army Tactical Terminals Under $26 Million Contract
