Mercury Computer Systems Inc. announced that it was selected by Raytheon to provide the wideband modem subsystem platform as part of Raytheon’s recent HDR-RF Ground Modem contract from the US Air Force. Raytheon worked with Mercury Computer Systems to leverage the benefits of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software radio processing and real waveform portability for elements of this defense communications application while still ensuring delivery of the highest performing solution available.


The onslaught of today’s communications standards coupled with rapidly evolving new-generation waveforms has created a need to build communications systems that are ready to accept any present or future waveform. Mercury is the first to enable COTS-based waveform portability meeting the needs of Department of Defense programs for wideband data link and SATCOM (WBDLS). This approach is expected to lower the costs for continued improvement in the waveforms used for communications, since it avoids the need for modem hardware redesign or replacement as waveforms are modified over time.

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Mercury Systems

“Leveraging available COTS technology for defense communications enables us to deliver capability to the warfighter faster and without sacrificing performance,” said George Vardakis, director of Air Force and Army SATCOM Programs at Raytheon Network Centric Systems.

Mercury will provide Raytheon with its Waveform-Ready™ WBDLS modem platform and SCA-compliant Component Portability Infrastructure (CPI) middleware for the software radio. Mercury Waveform-ready processing platforms combine the latest processor, transceiver and interconnect technologies with CPI to help customers meet the challenge of evolving standards and available technologies.

“We remain focused on developing COTS-based products that enable solutions for the most challenging problems. We are delighted to have been selected by Raytheon to assist them in their efforts to contribute to the defense SATCOM community,” said Mark Skalabrin, senior vice president, Advanced Computing Solutions at Mercury Computer Systems.