Raytheon-FlexRadio team to develop airborne high-frequency radio

Raytheon will develop and qualify a high-frequency radio under a $36 million Project Agreement through an Other Transaction Agreement with Consortium Management Group. The OTA is on behalf of Consortium for Command, Control and Communications in Cyberspace, in support of requirements from the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

The new radio will provide beyond line-of-sight, long distance communications for aircrews.

"High-frequency radios provide the military with secure communications in an increasingly complex and congested threat environment," said Barbara Borgonovi, vice president of Integrated Communication Systems. "Raytheon's partnership with FlexRadio combines commercial innovation with advanced military hardening techniques to rapidly deliver a next-generation operational capability that supports strategic and tactical missions."

The Raytheon-FlexRadio team is one of two recipients for this development program. After the 31-month period of performance, one team will be named to move on to production.

"Worldwide high-frequency communications is what our commercial customers do every day using virtually every mode of operation and type of propagation," said Gerald Youngblood, CEO of FlexRadio. "Our partnership brings together the vast resources and experience of Raytheon in airborne tactical communications systems with FlexRadio's commercial off-the-shelf high-frequency Software Defined Radios to deliver a modular, extensible, and flexible communications platform for the warfighter."