The United States Air Force (USAF) has selected an industrial team from Raytheon and FlexRadio to develop and qualify on-board high-frequency (HF) radio.
The Raytheon-FlexRadio team secured a $ 36 million contract for another transaction agreement (OTA) with the Consortium Management Group (CMG).
CMG awarded the OTA on behalf of the Cyberspace Command, Control and Communications Consortium (C5) to meet the needs of the US Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
The industry team will develop a new high-frequency radio capable of long-distance communication outside the crew’s field of vision.
Barbara Borgonovi, vice president of Raytheon Integrated Communication Systems, 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 quickly deliver next-generation operational capability that supports strategic and tactical missions.”
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The team is one of two contracts won for the radio development program. The contract includes 31 months of implementation, which will be followed by the US Air Force, selecting a team to move the program to the production stage.
FlexRadio CEO Gerald Youngblood said: “High-frequency communications around the world are what our commercial customers do every day, using virtually every mode and type of distribution.
“Our partnership combines Raytheon’s vast resources and expertise in air tactical communications systems with FlexRadio’s commercial standard high-frequency software-defined radios to provide a modular, scalable and flexible communications platform for fighters.
The partnership will adapt FlexRadio’s SmartSDR / FLEX-6000 architecture “for HF upgrade of on-board communication platforms”, FlexRadio said in a statement.
In July, the US Air Force selected L3Harris Technologies for developed a prototype for the L3Harris Falcon broadband HF radio as part of USAF’s AN / ARC-190 onboard HF radio replacement program.
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