The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded Raytheon Co. two contract modifications totaling a combined $5 million in support of the Arrays at Commercial Timescales (ACT) program. ACT is focused on developing technology that enables rapidly upgradable and widely deployable radar array architectures. The awards are the result of a competitive down select process after which DARPA chose Raytheon for the next phase of both programs.

"Raytheon shares DARPA's vision of a common digital beamforming architecture platform to enhance affordability and upgradability," said Paul Ferraro, vice president of Advanced Technology Programs for Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. "The RAPID programs 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."

Raytheon is leveraging its Rapid Array Performance Improvement and Deployment (RAPID) concepts in support of the ACT program. RAPID aims to dramatically shorten the timescales and non-recurring cost associated with phased array development, deployment and performance upgrades. RAPID achieves this by creating a building block, composed of a digitally-influenced common module and a reconfigurable radiating antenna element, that is scalable and customizable for each application, without requiring a full redesign for each application space.

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