New coastal watch center opens in Philippines

DULLES, Va., May 18 (UPI) -- A Raytheon designed coastal watch center for maritime security has opened in the Philippines, a "major milestone" in the support provided by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to the Philippines Maritime Agencies.

"The center's opening represents our commitment to providing critical services and solutions to help countries mitigate the risk of illicit weapons and materials crossing their sovereign borders," said Dave Wajsgras, president of Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. "Raytheon's global mission operations team has extensive experience with successfully delivering similar solutions in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific regions."

Raytheon, which also provided communication and surveillance solutions for the islands of Palawan and Cebu with associated training and sustainment services for the National Coastal Watch Center.

The coastal watch system project is part of the multiple award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity Cooperative Threat Reduction Integrating Contract given Raytheon in April 2011 by the U.S. Agency. Additional details on the center and its operations, however, were not detailed.