Raytheon Wins 3DELRR Radar Development USAF Contract

Raytheon’s Integrated Defense Systems has won a $52.6 million engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contract from US Air Force for Three-Dimensional Expeditionary Long-Range Radar (3DELRR) System.

Contractor will provide EMD of three 3DELRR production representative units. Work is expected to be complete by Nov. 30, 2020 the company announced Thursday.

This award is the result of a competitive acquisition with two offers received. Fiscal 2017 research, development, test, and evaluation funds in the amount of $5,500,000 are being obligated at the time of award.

This recent contract follows a protest in 2014 that stalled the program for nearly three years.

In 2014, the service chose the company as its prime contractor for 3DELRR. However, competitors Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman protested the selection, alleging Raytheon received information about the use of internal research and development funds that gave it an unfair advantage.

The Air Force opted to take corrective action and re-start the bidding process. This decision was stalled by repeated legal challenges from Raytheon. The company's final appeal of the Air Force's corrective action was denied in October 2015.

Raytheon’s 3DELRR, designed and manufactured for the US Air Force, is one of the first US systems built from the ground-up with exportability in mind.

Raytheon's 3DELRR solution is a C-band Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based radar. This combination enables warfighters to affordably detect, identify and track a wide variety of objects very accurately at great distances. Additionally, C-band is a relatively uncongested portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, providing warfighters additional operational flexibility.