US Army Awards Follow-on Contract to Upgrade SMART-T Satellite Communication Terminals

Released on Monday, April 28, 2008

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., April 28, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has won an $86.7 million contract to produce and install upgrade kits for the Army's Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical Terminal, or SMART-T.

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

The upgrades will be installed on joint and international terminals for the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps as well as for Canada and the Netherlands.

The Advanced Extremely High Frequency kits expand by a factor of four times the data rate of existing SMART-T systems.

Jerry Powlen, vice president, Network Centric Systems' Integrated Communications Systems, said: "These upgrades incorporate Raytheon's advances in protected satellite communications and provide our troops with increased bandwidth for real-time video, battlefield mapping and targeting data. As leaders in protected satellite communications, we look forward to delivering our AEHF solution to the Navy and the Air Force in the near future as well."

The Army's SMART-T was the first AEHF system to go into production with the proven capability to communicate with the next generation of AEHF communications satellites. AEHF is the Department of Defense's primary system to provide highly protected satellite communications through 2020.

Raytheon's SMART-T software has been the genesis for other critical programs including the company's solution for the Navy's Multiband Terminal and the Air Force's production of the Minuteman Minimum Essential Emergency Communications Network program upgrade. It provides the services with essential, joint-interoperable capability for legacy EHF and future AEHF communications.