Raytheon to Develop Mission Planning and Command and Control System for U.S. Air Force

The U.S. Air Force has asked Raytheon BBN to develop planning software for military cargo missions that would fly on space rockets.

The contract has a potential value of $8.7 million over four years and is part of the U.S. Air Force 2030 Science & Technology Strategy’s transformational science and technology portfolio.

During the initial 30-month effort, the Raytheon BBN team will develop mission planning and C2 concepts, identify and develop initial rocket cargo workflows and processes, and design advanced human-machine interfaces based on cognitive engineering principles. They will also work to identify coordination points across mission-planning and C2 stakeholders and propose solutions to address existing gaps in knowledge, organizations and processes.

“The tool we create must enable the Air Force to plan, coordinate and conduct a rocket cargo mission within hours,” said Beth DePass, Raytheon BBN principal investigator for the project. “At its core, this is a logistics challenge of epic proportions. Although the cargo would initially be pre-packaged and stored at the launch site for rapid loading, there are still tremendous challenges with how the DOD will safely load, launch, and deliver under very tight timing constraints. We will be taking into consideration pre-flight testing, weather conditions, launch approvals, and many other variables, to deliver that cargo precisely where it’s needed, when it’s needed, faster than current delivery methods.”

Raytheon BBN is a subsidiary of Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a business of Raytheon Technologies.

Work on this contract will be conducted in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Asheville, North Carolina; Mountain View, California; Stanford, California; Austin, Texas; and Fort Wayne, Indiana.