OREANDA-NEWS. Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has been awarded a $135 million Federal Aviation Administration contract modification to upgrade air traffic control systems at the final 22 airports of the Standard Terminal Automation System, known as STARS. Implementation of STARS at these 22 sites will complete the NextGen terminal automation modernization of every major FAA National Air Space facility by December 2019.

STARS provides terminal automation with a single operational baseline. This simplifies the implementation of future NextGen enhancements designed to maintain safety and bring efficiencies to an increasingly congested NAS.

"Raytheon and the FAA are together providing a safety-critical platform across the U.S.," said Michael Espinola, managing director, Raytheon Air Traffic Systems. "This platform has the processing capacity to allow greatly improved efficiency for the controllers, airlines and flying public."

STARS is a standard system used by both the FAA and the Department of Defense. It replaces several generations and versions of existing terminal automation systems, providing substantial savings in lifecycle costs. The system brings additional safety and capacity management features to terminal automation in both the commercial and defense sectors.

Raytheon has more than 65 years of experience in providing global air traffic management technology, products and services to civil and military customers around the world. Raytheon's ATM solutions operate in more than 60 countries and monitor more than 60 percent of the world's airspace.