The Air Force gave contract changes worth $7 million each to The Boeing Co. [BA] and Raytheon Co. [RTN] to work on free electron lasers (FEL), expanding previously awarded fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity order contracts given to the companies last year.
Each firm will work on a 100 Kw-Class FEL that can be used to demonstrate scalability of the necessary FEL physics and engineering for an eventual megawatt-class Free Electron Laser device.
The companies are expected to complete their work by next April.
The Office of Naval Research, Arlington, Va., manages the competitive contracts.