New communications pod will work with commercial and military satellites in Low Earth Orbit, Medium Earth Orbit and Geostationary Orbit

MCKINNEY, Texas, Aug. 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Collins Aerospace, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business, has been awarded a $36 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop and demonstrate a platform-agnostic, Beyond-Line-Of-Sight, satellite communications pod.

The communications pod will provide warfighters resilient, high bandwidth, low latency communications and data directly to the cockpit. The pod brings together military and commercial satellites to add resiliency to the host platforms; and will switch between services from different vendors with little or no hardware modification, while providing the ability to utilize future constellations as they come online.

"It is critical in a contested environment that the warfighter can communicate with operators regardless of communication path," said Ryan Bunge, vice president Communication & Networking Solutions for Collins Aerospace. "This resilient communications terminal is designed for survivability in degraded environments to offer military leaders enhanced situational awareness to make better decisions, faster across the battlespace."

About RTX 
RTX is the world's largest aerospace and defense company. With more than 180,000 global employees, we push the limits of technology and science to redefine how we connect and protect our world. Through industry-leading businesses – Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon – we are advancing aviation, engineering integrated defense systems for operational success, and developing next-generation technology solutions and manufacturing to help global customers address their most critical challenges. The company, with 2022 sales of $67 billion, is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

About Collins Aerospace
Collins Aerospace is a business of RTX, the largest aerospace and defense company in the world. Our global team of 73,000 employees dreams, designs and delivers smarter, more connected solutions for passenger safety and comfort, mission success, space exploration, and operational efficiency and sustainability. We make the most powerful concepts in aerospace a reality. For more information, visit CollinsAerospace.com.

For questions or to schedule an interview, please contact:
Liz Maddy
elizabeth.maddy@collins.com 

SOURCE RTX