BAE Systems protest could hold up Navy Raytheon NGJ program for three months or more

WASHINGTON, 29 July 2013.electronic warfare (EW) designers at the Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems segment in McKinney, Texas, have been ordered to stop work on the U.S. Navy Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) project after rival BAE Systems formally protested the NGJ award to Raytheon.

Officials of U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., awarded a $279.4 million contract to Raytheon on 8 July 2013 to develop the NGJ.

BAE filed a formal protest against the Navy's NGJ award to Raytheon shortly after the contract was announced. The NGJ is a project that analysts say could be worth billions of dollars in coming years. The NGJ is to go on the Navy EA-18G Growler EW jet, and its technology later could be applied to other aircraft, as well.

BAE Systems spokesman Brian Roehrkasse says BAE decided to lodge a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) because it had "concerns with the Navy's evaluation of our offering."

Raytheon CEO William Swanson says his company is "very comfortable" about its prospects for keeping the NGJ contract. "This is not a competition that happened overnight," Swanson says. "We feel very comfortable in their selection."

The GAO's review of the BAE Systems protest could take three months or longer, and Raytheon will not be able to resume work on the NGJ program until GAO officials determine the merits of the protest.

For more information contact Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems online at www.raytheon.com/capabilities/ew, BAE Systems at www.baesystems.com, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.