L-3 Communications Receives $37 M from US Air Force

L-3 Communications announced that its Interstate Electronics Corp. (IEC) subsidiary was awarded $37 M for the first phase of the US Air Force Modernized USER Equipment (MUE) Program by the US Air Force NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS) Joint Program Office. The total potential contract value for IEC, including future options, is $90.6 M.

The MUE program will fund the design and development of new GPS receiver technology for the support of future military GPS requirements. IEC's System on a Chip (SoC) approach will become the primary feature of IEC's new line of TruTrak M-Code GPS receivers. Use of this technology will result in a significant reduction in production costs and provide flexibility for a broad range of military applications including gun-fired projectiles, aircraft avionics and handheld GPS data units. IEC's product architecture will allow the production of receivers and higher-level systems to be accomplished in unclassified production facilities, further lowering the final system cost.

“We anticipate major price barrier breakthroughs in GPS-based systems, which will make this innovative technology more accessible and affordable than ever before,” said Robert Huffman, president of IEC. “Our ASIC platform, coupled with our advanced anti-jam technology, will provide a very competitive product that supports all of our military GPS customers.”