Raytheon has received the first production order for its next-generation NMT satellite communication terminals from the US Navy, marking a key milestone in the navy multiband terminal programme.
Valued at $37.6m, the initial production order calls for 22 systems that includes 15 ship, five submarine and two shore terminals, and other services and products.
NMT is a family of multibanded ship, submarine and shore communications terminals providing five times the bandwidth than other systems to the navy’s military-band satellite communications.
NMT integrates its extremely-high-frequency / advanced extremely-high-frequency (EHF/AEHF) capability with two-way military Ka and X band, and the global broadcast service.
NMT is also compatible with wideband global SATCOM, backward compatible with legacy satellite systems, and interoperable with legacy navy and other service terminals.
Raytheon Integrated Communications Systems vice-president Brian McKeon said that NMT gave the navy secure communications connectivity to the latest satellite constellations that users can absolutely depend on, in a smaller package, and at much lower cost.
Raytheon was initially awarded the NMT prototype development phase in August 2003 and the procurement of terminals could potentially increase the programme’s value to $1bn.
