The U.S. General Accounting Office upholds Raytheon win of $619.9 million contract to supply new digital airport surveillance radar (DASR) for the DoD and FAA.

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 10, 1996--The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) upheld the award of the Digital Airport Surveillance Radar (DASR) contract to Raytheon Electronic Systems (RES) against protest from competing bidders.

RES had won this competitive contract in August from the U.S. Air Force's Materiel Command, Electronic Systems Center (ESC). This is an indefinite quantity/indefinite delivery contract for up to 213 radars and will extend through 2007. Potential contract value is $619.9 million.

"Raytheon is extremely pleased with the GAO's decision on the DASR contract. We are excited to be moving forward with the DoD and FAA to build and field this critical flight safety improvement to the national airspace system," said Mike Hoeffler, manager of Transportation Systems for Raytheon Electronic Systems.

Raytheon's state-of-the-art International Air Traffic Control systems and radars have been chosen by numerous countries around the globe. Raytheon is also providing display equipment for the next generation FAA systems, and is currently installing 47 Terminal Doppler Weather Radar systems in major airports and FAA Technical Centers across the United States.

"Raytheon's DASR will provide key air traffic services at DoD and FAA airports," said William H. Swanson, Raytheon executive vice president and general manager of Raytheon Electronic Systems. "Our field-proven, solid-state primary surveillance radars are being selected worldwide over older, tube-based technology for their lower life cycle costs and their ease of maintenance. Our Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radars (MSSR) have been judged technically superior to all European and U.S. competitors."

The DASR system, known in the FAA as the ASR-11, is a critical element of the DoD and FAA air traffic modernization program to maintain a terminal area surveillance network into the 21st century. The DASR provides primary radar surveillance of aircraft out to an instrumented range of 60 nautical miles and secondary radar coverage up to 120 nautical miles. The new radars will be ready to interface directly with existing and future FAA/DoD automation systems that require digital interfaces.

The preproduction contract for $20 million calls for the delivery of up to three airport surveillance radars and will also include: developing interfaces to existing automation systems, performing design qualification tests, and supporting government test and evaluation. The DASR program is a joint procurement by the DoD for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Raytheon Electronic Systems in Marlboro, Mass. will provide program management, systems engineering, and design support. The primary surveillance radars are manufactured at Raytheon Canada in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The MSSR will be manufactured at Raytheon Cossor in the United Kingdom. The Raytheon Service Company will provide site design and installation, training and maintenance support from its Burlington, Mass., headquarters.

Raytheon Company, headquartered in Lexington, Mass., is a $12 billion international, high technology company which operates in four businesses: commercial and defense electronics, engineering and construction, aircraft, and major appliances. -0-

(Editor's note: The FAA is responsible for air traffic control at the majority of U.S. airports. The DoD and the FAA share air traffic control responsibility at joint use airports, and the DoD has ATC responsibility at military airfields)

CONTACT: Raytheon Company

Robert McWade

[phone]

http://www.raytheon.com