The US Air Force (USAF) has awarded a two-year Mentor Protégé Program (MPP) contract to Raytheon and Infinity Technology Services (ITS).
MPP involves partnering small businesses with larger companies to enable them to expand their presence in the defence industrial base. It enables the Department of Defense (DoD) to diversify its supplier base.
While the programme helps larger companies in their sourcing plans, smaller businesses benefit from the opportunity to develop technical capabilities.
Under this programme, Raytheon will offer help to ITS to advance the development of its cybersecurity design, testing, defence and verification capabilities.
Raytheon intelligence, information and services business vice-president Bill Sullivan said: “Encouraging small business is a good thing for the government, as well as Raytheon, and ITS brings a unique understanding of the airforce mission from several operational perspectives.
“Together, we are developing key technologies our customers need, and what we’ve learned on GPS OCX will be extremely valuable to everyone involved.”
GPS next-generation operational control system (GPS OCX) is the enhanced ground control segment of a project led by USAF to modernise its GPS. It will provide the ability to fly more than twice as many satellites.
Raytheon expects to deliver the full GPS OCX in 2021. The company will begin the installation of GPS OCX modernised monitoring station receivers worldwide in August.
ITS president Hassan Campbell said: “GPS OCX’s information assurance protections are industry leading, which is why this partnership is an incredible learning opportunity for our company.
“Cybersecurity is foundational to every DoD system, and the skills required to execute in this arena continue to evolve rapidly. We’re looking forward to improving our current capabilities to protect the systems we make and deliver to our military customers.”
