Raytheon Wins $279 Million U.S. Navy Contract

Raytheon Company yesterday won a contract worth $279 million from the U.S. Navy.

The Pentagon announced yesterday the 22-month contract, which runs through May 2015, includes development of the Next Generation Jammer, which will replace the ALQ-99 tactical jamming system used on the EA-18G Growler aircraft built by Boeing Co.

The U.S. Navy said the new jammer would be critical for future combat missions and should be ready for use by fiscal 2020.

"This is a huge win for Raytheon and such a big blow to the losers that it may trigger consolidation in the defense electronics sector," Loren Thompson, chief operating officer of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute said. "This program is crucial to combating efforts by China and other countries to keep U.S. forces out of their region."

Raytheon was one of four companies that worked on a 33-month technology contract that identified and matured critical technologies for the new jamming system.

"We couldn't be more pleased with the customer's selection of our NGJ offering," said Raytheon spokesman Jon Kasle. "We look forward to beginning work on this landmark program."

The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command said the contract was the next step in transitioning mature components into testable systems, as well as developing a preliminary design for the new jamming pods that will be used on the EA-18G Growler by fiscal 2020.

It said the technology development phase would be followed by a 4-1/2-year engineering and manufacturing phase, during which the pods developed by Raytheon would be testing and flown on the Boeing-built warplanes.