Air Force awarded Raytheon $4.8 million to resume work on a non-explosive, counter-electronic missile, according to the company’s March 23 release. The Counter-electronics High-power Microwave Advanced Missile Project, known as CHAMP, uses a high-powered-microwave-emitting payload to knock out electronic and data systems. “Non-kinetic systems give the US the option to defeat enemy infrastructure with little collateral damage,” said Thomas Bussing, vice president of Raytheon Advanced Missile Systems, in the release. As part of the deal, Raytheon will refurbish the CHAMP payload and a pair of delivering Conventional Air-Launched Cruise missiles and deliver them to the Air Force Research Laboratory. “This is the first major CHAMP activity since the AFRL successfully demonstrated the technology in October 2012,” states the release. (See also JASSM Eyed for Multiple New Modes and You Gotta Build them.)
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.