DARPA has awarded a $2.5 million contract to Raytheon to boost infantry squads effectiveness 32201162

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DARPA has awarded a $2.5 million contract to Raytheon to boost infantry squads effectiveness
DARPA, the U.S. Department of Defense's advanced research and technology branch, has awarded a $2.5 million, Phase One contract to Raytheon Company to develop new technologies to boost the effectiveness and safety of infantry squads.
     
DARPA has awarded a 2 5 million contract to Raytheon to boost infantry squads effectiveness 640 001DARPA's Squad X Core Technologies (SXCT) program
     

The contract was awarded under DARPA's Squad X Core Technologies (SXCT) program, which is designed to speed development of new, lightweight, integrated systems to give infantry squads greater awareness, adaptability and flexibility in complex environments. The program will also enable dismounted soldiers and marines to more easily understand and control their mission environments.

"We are working to enable ground troops to more effectively operate in urban and complex environments," said Tom Bussing, Raytheon vice president of Advanced Missile Systems. "Raytheon's experience as the systems integrator for DARPA's Persistent Close Air Support program, which offered distributed coordination between air and ground forces, will provide an ideal starting point to help squads effectively perform manned and unmanned teaming."

Raytheon is a prime contractor for research into technologies for squad autonomy. SXCT will seek to give squad members real-time knowledge of their own and teammates' locations to less than 20 feet (6 meters) in GPS-denied environments. The new technologies will collaborate with embedded unmanned air and ground systems.