Raytheon Co. has been awarded an $84.6 M contract to produce upgrade kits for its Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Tactical Terminal, or SMART-T, for the US Army and Marine Corps, and Canada and the Netherlands.
The Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) kits expand by a factor of four times the data rate of existing SMART-T systems.
The Army's SMART-T is 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.
"We have fielded more than 300 SMART-T systems to date, and with the added AEHF capability, we are assuring the readiness of tomorrow's communications systems," said Jerry Powlen, vice president, Network Centric Systems' Integrated Communications Systems.
"We appreciate the confidence the Army has shown in our solution with this award, and we look forward to delivering our AEHF solution to the Navy and the Air Force in the near future as well."
The AEHF upgrade incorporates Raytheon's eXtended Data Rate (XDR) waveform hardware and software modifications, a technological breakthrough in protected communications. The new XDR waveform provides users with increased bandwidth, enabling tactical military communications such as real-time video, battlefield mapping and targeting data.
The company's non-proprietary SMART-T software has been the genesis for other critical programs including Raytheon's proposed solution for the Navy's Multiband Terminal. It provides the services with essential, joint interoperable capability for legacy EHF and future AEHF communications.