Only months after Raytheon acquired Blackbird Technologies, which offers persistent surveillance, secure tactical communications and cybersecurity solutions to the intelligence community and special operations market, synergies between the two organizations are coming to fruition.
“The combined team can capitalize on the strong customer insights and relationships Blackbird held before the acquisition,” said Peggy Styer, chief executive of Raytheon Blackbird Technologies (RBT).
For example, the RBT team was recently named one of four awardees of the SOCOM-Wide Mission Support program, a sweeping $900 million contract under which RBT will provide professional services, program management services and engineering and technical services to all components of the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), which has forces deployed across the globe. For over a decade, Raytheon Blackbird has supported SOCOM in various strategic capacities all over the world. The Raytheon business RBT joined did not previously have SOCOM program experience.
“The SWMS contract is the first of what will surely be many large program contract awards resulting from these synergies,” said Jack Harrington, vice president of cybersecurity and special missions at Raytheon.
“Raytheon brings additional technical depths that we can leverage for our customers and their missions,” said Doug Lessley, a program manager at RBT.
RBT will be better positioned to win large contracts because of the resources and overall experience of a large defense contractor like Raytheon. RBT has established customers that Raytheon didn’t previously enjoy. Raytheon can offer a wider array of capabilities and services for more comprehensive contracts.
The RBT team is also collaborating with other Raytheon groups to seek U.S. government agency programs to broaden their computer network defense capabilities. Raytheon and RBT together are well-positioned for such programs because of Raytheon’s capabilities across the enterprise and RBT’s deep cyber products strengths.
Raytheon is placing big bets on its growing cybersecurity business, having invested $3.5 billion to date in acquisitions and other development. Blackbird Technologies, which joined Raytheon in November 2014, was the seventeenth cybersecurity company the defense contractor acquired in the last decade.
Earlier this year, Raytheon entered into a joint venture with Websense. The new company will leverage Raytheon’s advanced cybersecurity technologies and Websense’s industry leading TRITON® platform to provide a new level of defense-grade cybersecurity to combat the evolving cyber threat environment.