DARPA awards two ACT contracts to Raytheon
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded two contract modifications to Raytheon in support of the Arrays at Commercial Timescales (ACT) programme. Raytheon announced the contract modifications, worth $5 million in total, on 17 March.
The ACT programme is focused on developing technology to enable rapidly upgradeable and widely deployable radar array architectures. Raytheon is leveraging its Rapid Array Performance Improvement and Deployment (RAPID) concepts in support of this programme.
RAPID aims to shorten the non-recurring costs and timescales associated with phased array development, deployment and performance upgrades. It does this by creating a building block made of a digitally-influenced common module and a reconfigurable radiating antenna element. The block can be scaled and customised for each application without requiring a full redesign.
DARPA chose Raytheon for the next phase of the programmes after a competitive down select process.
Paul Ferraro, vice president of advanced technology programs, integrated defence systems business, Raytheon, said: 'Raytheon shares DARPA's vision of a common digital beam-forming architecture platform to enhance affordability and upgradability.
'The RAPID programmes are the latest example of Raytheon's collaboration with DARPA to provide affordable, rapidly available, best in class solutions that can stay ahead of evolving threats.'
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