LEXINGTON, Mass., May 4, 1999 - Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTNA, RTNB) announced
today it has been awarded an approximate $11.5 million contract from the U.S. Army's
Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command to upgrade individual flight
simulators for the UH-60A/L Black Hawk and CH-47D Chinook.
The UH-60 and CH-47 simulators are used by the Eighth U.S. Army, which operates
within the Republic of South Korea, to retain aircrew operational proficiency and
develop mission readiness skills. Today, UH-60 and CH-47 pilots are honing their
skills on trainers integrated with a visual system data base that replicates generic
Central European terrain.
Raytheon will upgrade both simulators' visual system image generation systems.
In accomplishing this upgrade, each simulator will be integrated with a new Evans &
Sutherland Computer Corporation ESIG image generation system.
Raytheon also will design a new visual system data base, encompassing the Korean
peninsula, that will enhance simulator training realism and mission readiness
preparation by UH-60 and CH-47 pilots. Approximately 11,000 square nautical miles
of the data base will be geo-typical. Over 1,400 square nautical miles of the data
base will be geo-specific, providing high scene detail for nine identified geographic
areas. A generic data base will be developed for the remainder of the peninsula.
Additional modifications will include upgrades to each simulator that will keep
the trainers concurrent with aircraft design changes made to each helicopter. In
addition, the UH-60 simulator will receive a new computational system and the CH-47
trainer will add a new instructor operator station.
In its updated and concurrent mode, both the UH-60 and CH-47 simulators will
enable aircrews to practice ground operations, airfield take offs and landings,
confined area landings, hovering, formation flight, instrument flight, emergency
procedures, weapons delivery and electronic countermeasures within a Korean visual
data base. The upgraded trainers will ensure positive pilot habit transfers between
the simulators and the aircraft, allowing more UH-60 and CH-47 pilot training to be
offloaded to the training devices.
The new image generators, visual system data base and the UH-60 simulator's
computational system will be delivered to the customer during the first phase
of the program, 12 months following contract award. Concurrency and other
simulator upgrades for both trainers are scheduled for completion during the second
phase of the program, within 24 months following contract award.
Raytheon Company, based in Lexington, Mass., is a global technology leader that
provides products and services in the areas of commercial and defense electronics,
engineering and construction, and business and special mission aircraft. Raytheon
has operations throughout the United States and serves customers in more than 80
countries around the world.