Air Force taps Raytheon for continued tech, testing services

The Air Force has awarded Raytheon Co. a $179.5 million follow-on contract to continue providing a range of technical and testing services to the branch.

The award calls for the company to provide Contractor Field Service support for U-2 sensors, data links and the Air Force’s Distributed Common Ground System, according to a Jan. 12 company news release.

Raytheon is also the prime contractor for the Air Force DCGS system, which modernizes the Armed Forces’ distributed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) exploitation systems, creating a worldwide, network-centric enterprise for real-time information sharing, according to the company website.

Under the terms of the contract, Raytheon will provide support at the Air National Guard and Predator Operations Center, Air Force Flight Test Facility, Consolidated Remote Operations-Facility Airborne and DGS-X Test-bed Facility.

Company engineers and technicians also will perform other services, such as training, the announcement said.

"This contract allows us to provide more than 500 field engineers, supporting around-the-clock worldwide operations across 27 locations," Raymond Kolibaba, vice president of Defense and Civil Mission Solutions at Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business, explained in the release.

"The program includes pre-flight system checks, mission support during flight and post-mission problem analysis," he said.