Radio contractsDARPA awards Cobham $15 million for wireless network

Cobham announced last week that it has been awarded $14.8 million by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the Wireless Network after Next (WNaN) program. Under this cost plus fixed fee contract, Cobham Sensor Systems in Lowell, Massachusetts, will design, develop, and demonstrate low-cost wireless network nodes which support adaptation by means of distributed network processing. A key element of the design is affordability, to allow wide deployment throughout the armed services.

According to Cobham, the radios will be demonstrated during follow-on field trials by the U.S. Department of Defense in 2010.

Separately, Cobham was last week awarded a $3 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy to provide 37 additional AN/ALQ-99 Low Band Transmitters (LBTs) under Lot 2 of the program’s Full Rate Production (FRP) phase. Work under this contract will be performed by Cobham Sensor Systems in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. Lot 2 deliveries are scheduled to begin in March 2011 and continue through to November 2011.

This award, a modification to the existing Lansdale FRP Lot 1 contract, brings the total number of LBTs ordered by the Navy to 157. The FRP Lot 1 contract for 51 systems was announced by Cobham in April 2009 with a value of $72 million. The navy intends to buy a total of 292 LBTs. To date, 46 systems have been delivered.

The company says LBT is designed to protect strike aircraft, ships, and ground troops by disrupting enemy radar and communications. It is flown on U.S. Navy and Marine Corps EA-6B aircraft, and is in use in Iraq.