Tasked With Replacement For Navy's EP-3 Orion

Boeing announced last week Raytheon has joined its EP-X industry team, to develop an airborne intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting aircraft to replace the US Navy's EP-3 signals intelligence (SIGINT) platform.

Raytheon, also a member of Boeing's P-8A Poseidon industry team, will be responsible for EP-X sensor integration and multi-intelligence integration and play a significant role in core mission systems. Raytheon joins Argon ST, a leading designer and developer of SIGINT sensors and information operations systems, on the Boeing EP-X team.

"Raytheon is a great addition to our EP-X team and together with Argon ST provides unparalleled experience and technical capability," said Paul Summers, Boeing director of Airborne SIGINT Campaigns. "The Boeing team understands the challenges and is well-positioned to provide a capable and cost-effective EP-X solution for the Navy."

The Navy awarded Boeing a $1.25 million EP-X concept refinement contract in February. Since then, Boeing and Argon ST have been defining program requirements and developing initial system concepts. As prime contractor for P-8A, Boeing plans to draw on that program's logistics, maintenance, support, training and other relevant data for EP-X.

The Navy will solicit proposals for the technology development phase of the program in the coming months and select contractors for that phase in 2009.

FMI: www.boeing.com, www.raytheon.com