No Space Fence Protest

Raytheon confirmed today that it will not protest the Air Force's award of a $914 million Space Fence contract to Lockheed Martin.

“Raytheon put forward the most affordable, lowest-risk solution which drew heavily on the company’s experience as the world leader in building large-phased array radars in austere parts of the world,” Raytheon spokesman Mike Nachshen said in a statement on Monday evening. “But after reviewing the results of the debrief we believe not protesting the Space Fence decision is the right thing to do for the Air Force, the Warfighter, and Raytheon.”

Lockheed and Raytheon were the only two companies to compete for the contract, which was awarded on June 5. The new radar -- which could be the first of several should the Air Force choose to further develop the program -- is expected to greatly expand the number of space objects the service tracks and improve its ability to characterize those objects and prevent future collisions with space assets.