Raytheon has been awarded a $179.5 million follow-on contract by the U.S. Air Force to provide Contractor Field Service (CFS) support for U-2 sensors, data links and the Air Force Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS). Raytheon has been prime on the CFS program providing support to the warfighter since the original contract was awarded in 1999.

"This contract allows us to provide more than 500 field engineers, supporting around-the-clock worldwide operations across 27 locations," said Raymond Kolibaba, vice president of Defense and Civil Mission Solutions for Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business. "The program includes pre-flight system checks, mission support during flight and post-mission problem analysis."

Under the terms of the contract, Raytheon will provide support at the Air National Guard and Predator Operations Center, Air Force Flight Test Facility, Consolidated Remote Operations-Facility Airborne and DGS-X Test-bed Facility. The U-2 CFS contract also calls for Raytheon engineers and technicians to perform other services, such as training.

Raytheon is also the prime contractor for the Air Force DCGS contract. DCGS is a worldwide distributed, network centric, system-of-systems architecture that conducts collaborative intelligence operations. DCGS provides both physical and electronic distribution of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data.