DARPA selects Raytheon for infantry squad research

TUCSON, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Raytheon has received a $2.5 million Phase One contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop new technologies to improve the effectiveness of infantry squads.

The project is part of DARPA's Squad X Core Technologies program, which aims to speed the development of lightweight technologies to give infantry warfighters greater situational awareness and adaptability to mission environments.

Raytheon says the research will explore how infantry squads can better adjust to urban and complex environments.

"Raytheon's experience as the systems integrator for DARPA's Persistent Close Air Support program, which offered distributed coordination between air and ground forces, will provide an ideal starting point to help squads effectively perform manned and unmanned teaming," Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems vice president Tom Bussing said in a statement.

Raytheon adds the new technologies will collaborate with embedded unmanned air and ground systems. SXCT aims to give infantry squad members real-time awareness of "their own and teammates' locations to less than 20 feet" in GPS-denied environments.