Executive Mosaic is honored to present Dave Wajsgras, president of the intelligence, information and services business at Raytheon, as an inductee into the 2020 Wash100 Award for his leadership in efforts to help government customers develop and update technology platforms as part of multimillion dollar contract awards.
This marks Wajsgras sixth consecutive Wash100 Award. He secured his 2019 Wash100 Award for leading the development of “organic” R&D and securing major contracts from federal civilian and military agencies.
Under Wajsgras’ leadership, the IIS unit develops products based on “organic” research and development, including insider threat offerings that were deployed by the U.S. government in 2018. Wajsgras has continued to develop Raytheon’s software development and intelligence throughout the year.
In October 2019, Raytheon secured a potential 10-year, $300 million contract to develop and test new space platforms and flight software for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The contract has a five-year base term worth approximately $150 million and includes engineering, operations and training support for JPL.
“JPL's pioneering spacecraft and rovers have led to groundbreaking discoveries of our solar system and beyond," Wajsgras said at the time. "This is an incredible opportunity to continue enabling the future of space exploration."
In addition, he also led Raytheon through major contracts and partnerships within the military. In January 2020, the U.S. Air Force awarded the company a five-year, $197 million contract to help modernize the branch’s missile warning architecture with a new system that will collect and fuse data from multiple sensors to provide a comprehensive picture of launch activity.
The company created the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution (FORGE) Mission Data Processing Application Framework (MDPAF) to support the modernization project. FORGE is designed to collect data from nearly any type of satellite or sensor and help operators make sense of that data quickly.
“Essentially, this is a smartphone model," Wajsgras said of the FORGE platform. "We've built an operating system that everyone can build applications for – from Raytheon to the Air Force to universities to small companies. These applications allow the system to process specific types of data.”
Raytheon also kicked off efforts to install monitor station receivers worldwide for the GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System last year.
“The modernized receivers give GPS OCX the ability to receive and decrypt all GPS III military and civil signals, a critical capability the current system doesn't have…Monitor station receiver installation keeps us on track for full system delivery by our June 2021 contractual deadline," stated Wajsgras.
In August 2019, Raytheon announced the completion of the final qualification test of the receivers, which will work to supply correction models at the control station to provide Air Force satellite controllers with data needed to perform adjustments to boost accuracy. GPS OCX is a ground-based control system the company built for the service branch’s GPS III satellites.
“GPS OCX performed extremely well during the first launch and has exceeded performance requirements in the months since,” Wajsgras said at the time. “The team was well-prepared for this launch, and we’re confident the system’s performance will continue to be positive.”
Raytheon is scheduled to deliver the full system to the Air Force by June 2021.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Raytheon and David Wajsgras for his 2020 Wash100 Award. Wajsgras’ influence proves that he is a notable figure in the GovCon sector and a leader in the industry.
About The Wash100
This year represents our sixth annual Wash100 Award selection. The Wash100 is the premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic’s organizational and editorial leadership as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector. These leaders demonstrate skills in leadership, innovation, achievement, and vision.
Visit the Wash100 site to learn about the other 99 winners of the 2020 Wash100 Award. On the site, you can submit your 10 votes for the GovCon executives of consequence that you believe will have the most significant impact in 2020.
