NovAtel, a precise positioning technology company, announced the receipt of three letter contracts, worth a total $1,266,000 US, from Raytheon Company to begin
production of a Common Reference Receiver (CRR), and to continue development and
build of engineering unit models of the Ground Uplink System (GUS) receiver and
GUS Signal Generator. These programs are part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) FOC Upgrade System
and the new WAAS Geostationary Communication & Control Segment (GCCS).
In addition to the above letter contracts, NovAtel and Raytheon expect to further
definitize these contracts before the end of the year. Provided NovAtel’s
development proposals are accepted and the corresponding contracts awarded, the
Company expects this work to provide revenues of up to $7.9 million US over the
next three years.
Most recently, NovAtel has been authorized by the FAA to begin work on the
production of a new WAAS CRR. This receiver incorporates the Company’s latest
generation Multipath Estimating Delay Lock Loop (MEDLL)(r), Satellite Quality
Monitoring (SQM) and SafeTrac (r) Cross-Correlation detection technologies.
MEDLL provides highly accurate range measurements, fast reacquisition of lost
satellites, and superior tracking in the presence of RF interference. NovAtel
estimates the total value of this contract to be up to $4.1 million US. The
WAAS CRR will be initially fielded by Raytheon/FAA in new WAAS Reference
Stations to expand WAAS availability coverage, and may then be retrofitted later
into the existing WAAS Reference Stations.
The FAA determined that additional Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite
services for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) were needed to provide the
necessary coverage, availability and improved continuity of service to the
aviation user. A contract was then awarded to Lockheed Martin and its team
members Raytheon and Boeing for additional WAAS GEO satellites, with Raytheon
receiving a subcontract for the ground based signal generator subsystem. As
part of this program, in May 2003, NovAtel was authorized to begin work on the
development, qualification, and build of engineering and production models of
Ground Uplink Subsystem (GUS) receivers. Each GUS receiver contains three
independent sections; each including L1/L2 and L5 card level receivers. The GUS
receiver forms an integral part of the uplink signal generation control loop.
NovAtel estimates the total value of this contract to be up to $2.3 million US.
Work has also been authorized on the qualification and build of engineering and
production models of a GUS L1/L5 Signal Generator based on a prototype design
supplied by Zeta Associates and GPS Silicon Valley and developed under the FAA’s
WAAS R&D efforts. The GUS L1/L5 Signal Generator is the basic signal source for
the L1 and L5 uplink signals to the new WAAS GEO satellite. NovAtel estimates
the total value of this contract to be up to US $1.5 million.
