Raytheon garners backbone contract

The Air Force awarded a contract worth $360 million to an industry team led by Raytheon Co.'s Intelligence and Information Systems division in Garland, Texas, to build a new network for the service's Distributed Common Ground System.

The DCGS Information Backbone (DIB) 10.2 multi-intelligence update will allow the Air Force to more easily process data accumulated by its aircraft that gather intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), Tom Hawkins, the Raytheon division's director of remote systems operations, said in a telephone interview late last week.

The Rivet Joint manned aircraft and the Global Hawk and Predator drones connect separately to the system. The Air Force wants to integrate their networks to create one worldwide, net-centric ISR enterprise system, Hawkins said.

The information backbone contract has 1.5 year base period worth $157 million, but the Air Force can choose to expand the program to include an additional 29 service and 39 Navy systems, a Raytheon statement said. "DCGS Web-based technologies will transform ISR into an integrated element of [Defense Department] weapon systems, enabling war-fighter dominance of the battlespace," the Raytheon statement said.

The industry team includes Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Management and Data Systems division.