The Federal Aviation Administration's Wide Area Augmentation System is being developed by Raytheon as the next-generation aviation navigation system. It will provide en route coverage through Category I precision approach capabilities by increasing the accuracy, availability, and integrity of signals from the U.S. Department of Defense's Global Positioning System satellites.

In addition to the reference stations, two master stations (one in Virginia and one in California), and four radio frequency uplinks (one in Maryland, two in California, and one in the state of Washington), have been installed by Raytheon and accepted by the FAA. Raytheon has also completed three of four planned software builds. Software qualification testing will begin in September, and final software delivery is scheduled for December 1998.

Raytheon has begun integration of the reference, master, and uplink stations using a communication network provided by MCI. Two Inmarsat geostationary satellites, one over the western Atlantic Ocean and one over the Pacific Ocean, were launched last summer and are now operational.

"Raytheon is the world leader in Air Traffic Management Systems," said Francis S. Marchilena, executive vice president and general manager of Raytheon Systems Company's Command, Control, Communication Systems business segment. "The satellite-based WAAS complements our ground-based system for growth into the next century."

Based on sophisticated computer analysis using data from the National Satellite Test Bed, Raytheon expects to deliver a navigation signal that exceeds contract requirements. Accuracy is proving to be better than specified, and signal availability for both en route and precision approach navigation will exceed contract requirements.