FOUR TEAMS HAVE received contracts to support US Federal Aviation Administration development of the local-area augmentation system (LAAS) which is needed to provide Category II/III precision-approach capability using the global-positioning system (GPS).

The delayed contracts awarded to Harris, PRC, Raytheon and Wilcox pre-qualify the teams to bid on task orders related to LAAS development issued by the FAA and other agencies. The "indefinite delivery - indefinite quality" contracts cover one year, with six one-year options, and have a maximum-value limit of $570 million.

Harris leads an 11-member team which also includes Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Racal and Trimble, while PRC's ten-company team includes ARINC, E-Systems and Rockwell.

Raytheon Service heads a 16-member team which includes Airport Systems International, Boeing, Rockwell-Collins, Daimler-Benz Aerospace and Interstate Electronics.

Wilcox Electric, which has included GPS-supplier NovAtel in its six-company team, says that the contract will allow the FAA to obtain engineering services, including prototyping, to assist in defining the LAAS architecture to provide precision-landing and surface-movement guidance by augmenting GPS accuracy, availability and integrity.

Source: Flight International

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