The Pentagon has awarded L3-Harris and Raytheon $500 million each to develop anti-jam communications software — called the Protected Tactical Waveform (PTW) used in military satellites.
“Raytheon and L3-Harris have each been awarded a $500 million contract with corresponding delivery orders valued at $37.6 million for Raytheon and $30.6 million for L3-Harris, to develop protected tactical waveform capable modems. This contract provides for research, development and production of protected tactical waveform capable modems for tactical satellite communication operations,” the Pentagon said in a statement Friday.
A ground system, the Protected Tactical Enterprise Service (PTES) will manage the transmission of the waveform over the Air Force’s Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS), satellites and terminals.
After deployment of PTW, PTES and space segment, the military’s SATCOM system and Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) constellation will be modernized, with Pentagon wanting a dedicated SATCOM constellation for nuclear command and control.
Work for the current contract is expected to be completed April 1, 2025.
