The U.S. Navy has received the final unit of a Raytheon Technologies-built navigation and precision approach and landing system that guides military aircraft onto naval carriers and amphibious assault ships.
The valedictory delivery of the Joint Precision Approach and Landing Systems comes less than two years after the Navy declared initial operational capability for the platform to help F-35C units land on aircraft carriers in all weather conditions and mission environments, Naval Air Systems Command said Thursday.
“This is a significant milestone for the JPALS team, and highlights the incredible efforts of hundreds of our teammates over the past decade who developed and now have fully delivered these critical systems that our Warfighters and International Partners need,” said Capt. Kevin Watkins, program manager of Naval Air Traffic Management Systems Program Office.
Raytheon received a four-year, $234.6M contract in May 2019 to begin the low-rate initial production of the GPS-based aircraft landing system.
JPALS is installed on all U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships and is used to support the F-35 aircraft fleet of the British and Italian navies.
In February, the Japanese navy ordered JPALS for its JS Izumo aircraft carrier.
