Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems (IIS) business will build an additional lot of Global Hawk ground segments consisting of the launch and recovery element (LRE), the mission control element (MCE) and associated ground communication equipment.

The MCE is responsible for key mission plan elements and is designed to command and control up to three air vehicles simultaneously. The LRE prepares, launches, and recovers the Global Hawk. It verifies the health and status of the various subsystems aboard the vehicle, receives the mission plan from the MCE, and loads it into the Global Hawk.

"Global Hawk is a high priority transformational system for the U.S. Air Force," said William P. Jones, vice president of Tactical Intelligence Systems for Raytheon IIS. "We are pleased to be awarded this follow-on contract to supply launch and recovery elements and the mission control elements to the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk program and the Air Force."

Late last year Raytheon IIS was awarded Lot 4 for the ground segments by Northrop Grumman. This ground segments award is from Lot 5 of the Global Hawk low-rate initial production program. In addition to the Global Hawk ground segment, Raytheon also produces the sensor suite for the Global Hawk from its Space and Airborne Systems business in El Segundo, Calif.

Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems is a leading-edge provider of government information and intelligence technology solutions, providing the right knowledge at the right time enabling our customers to make timely and accurate decisions to achieve their mission goals.

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