Raytheon Solipsys, a Raytheon subsidiary, has won a $9 million contract to install its Zeus situational awareness and collaboration system for remotely piloted aircraft at 18 Air Combat Command, Air National Guard, and Air Force Special Operations Command locations. “Zeus provides RPA operators with a real-time correlated and fused track picture from multiple plot and track sources with collaboration and communication tools such as chat, common data formats, cursor-on-target, and the ability to fully participate in a Link-16 network,” said Adam Stull, Zeus project lead, in a the company’s release. The system is based on the Tactical Display Framework and Multi-Source Correlator Tracker, both Raytheon Solipsys products that have been “battle-tested” in all four military services.
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
