Raytheon to Develop Network Centric Radio Systems for DARPA (updated)

Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems in Fort Wayne, IN won a $21.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee and fixed-price contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the Network Centric Radio System (NCRS). DARPA envisions two critical technologies for the NCRS: 1) a backbone radio architecture that enables IP versatile networks and 2) a radio gateway that enable legacy analog and digital communications systems to be linked together. The contract has a potential value of up to $155 million if all options are exercised. DID has more on NCRS and DARPA’s MAINGATE program… In 2008, then DARPA Director Tony Tether told a House Armed Services Committee panel that the NCRS is: “… a mobile, self-healing ad hoc network gateway approach that provides radio/network compatibility on-the-move in any terrain – including the urban environment. NCRS has built interoperability into the network itself, rather than having to build it into each radio, so any radio can now be interoperable with any other. Today, using NCRS, previously incompatible tactical radios – military legacy, coalition, and first responder – can talk seamlessly among themselves and to more modern systems, including both military and commercial satellite systems.” Development of NCRS is part of DARPA’s Mobile Ad […]