Raytheon Wins Air Traffic Control Pact

The Federal Aviation Administration, anticipating a big increase in air travel, on Monday awarded a $950-million contract to Raytheon to provide new radar systems and other control tower electronics equipment to several hundred civilian and military airfields.

The Massachusetts firm beat out Lockheed Martin and Boeing for the lucrative contract, which will replace black and white screens at 172 civilian airports and 199 military sites with easy-to-read color screens featuring bigger displays and more weather information.

The screens will be combined with new computers to provide a modernized system for the air traffic controllers. Some of them are working at airports with 20-year-old equipment.

The new devices are to be installed between 1998 and 2007.

The radar control systems help controllers direct traffic within a 50-mile range of an airport. Traffic beyond that range is under the direction of regional centers. Their equipment is also being improved under a separate contract.

The new system should help the FAA cope with the growing volume of air traffic, as the number of flights is expected to rise 18% by 2000, officials said.

“Consumers will see fewer delays, the system will be safer, more reliable and will grow as traffic grows over the next decade,” Transportation Secretary Federico Pena said.

FAA operations have been plagued by repeated computer failures in recent years.

A newly installed computer system failed at a regional control center in Auburn, Wash., which handles traffic in six states, including parts of California.

Controllers were able to resume communications with aircraft through a backup system. Another failure in Miami also temporarily crippled communications from ground to air. No accidents occurred in either incident.

More than 1,200 flights have been delayed in the last 16 months because of computer failures at the regional control centers, according to a report by the American Automobile Assn., based on federal data.

Two California firms will be involved as subcontractors in the contract: Hughes Information Systems of Fullerton and Sun Microsystems of Mountain View. Other subcontractors are Magnavox Electronic Systems Co. of Fort Wayne, Ind., and UFA Inc. of Lexington, Mass. Raytheon, the contract winner, is also based in Lexington. The contract for improved equipment is called the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System.

The system can be expanded, as needed, to handle growing traffic and new technical requirements by the FAA, spokesman Les Dorr said.

He compared the current radar control system to an old personal computer. “It can’t handle as much information and run as many applications as a new model,” Dorr said.

The value of the contract could increase beyond the anticipated $950 million, depending on final development and installation costs.

The first replacement equipment under the new system is scheduled to be installed in Boston in December 1998.

Hughes Information Systems’ piece of the contract calls for the company’s Fullerton-based command and control systems unit to provide an emergency backup system for Raytheon’s main tracking system.

The company will be able to modify guidance system software it has already developed and won’t have to gear up for a major development program, Hughes spokeswoman Diana Ball said.

Times staff writer John O’Dell contributed to this report.