DULLES, Va., Jan. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Air Force has awarded one of its most important space procurements, potentially a multi-billion-dollar contract to operate, maintain, and sustain launch ranges at Florida's Space Coast and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, to a joint venture of Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) and General Dynamics.

The joint venture, called Range Generation Next (RGNext) is responsible for operations, as well as organizational and depot-level maintenance and sustainment for safe and effective launch, testing, and tracking of Department of Defense, civil, commercial, and international spacelift vehicles. It will also support ballistic missile, guided weapon, and aeronautical tests and evaluations.

The $1.5 billion, single-award contract has a one-year base period with nine one-year options. Raytheon and General Dynamics formed RGNext to pursue the opportunity, known as the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center's Launch and Test Range System (LTRS) Integrated Support (LISC) contract, supporting the U.S. Air Force Space Command.

Existing operations and maintenance at the Eastern and Western launch ranges and the engineering and sustainment work for the entire LTRS are being consolidated into LISC, primarily a fixed-price-incentive firm (target) contract.

"Together, Raytheon and General Dynamics offer the U.S. Air Force more than 40 years of operations and maintenance experience, along with leadership across information technology domains," said Lynn Dugle, president of Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services. "In this cost-sensitive environment, LISC will deliver efficiencies and economies of scale that could not be obtained under separate contracts. Our team is eager to play its part in helping the customer ensure safe mission operations."  

"As part of this proven team, General Dynamics Information Technology will leverage lessons learned and proven processes to ensure the ranges continue as the nation's premier launch facilities," said Dan Johnson, president of General Dynamics Information Technology.

For more information about General Dynamics Information Technology, please visit www.gdit.com.

More information about General Dynamics is available at www.generaldynamics.com.

About Raytheon
Raytheon Company, with 2013 sales of $24 billion and 63,000 employees worldwide, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, security and civil markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 92 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as cyber security and a broad range of mission support services. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. For more about Raytheon, visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @Raytheon.

Media Contacts
Raytheon
Jason Kello
+1.571.250.1877

General Dynamics
Mark Meudt
+1.703.995.4994
mark.meudt@gdit.com

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SOURCE Raytheon Company