U.S. Navy radio communications experts needed encryption for radio systems aboard aircraft, surface ships, submarines, and ground vehicles. They found their solution from Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems in Marlborough, Mass.
Officials of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in San Diego awarded a $32 million production contract to Raytheon for next-generation encryption devices to safeguard military tactical data transmissions across air, surface, subsurface, and ground assets.
Raytheon is providing the Link Level Communication Security 7M (LLC 7M) encryptor to provide enhanced security for the Link 22 tactical radio system used by the U.S. military and its allies. The LLC 7M is certified to U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Type 1 encryption to protect military information transmitting over the Link 22 network. Link 22 replaces the Navy's legacy Link 11 radio system, and is interoperable with the current Link 16 system. Link 22 provides long-distance, beyond-line-of-sight communications without help from satellites or airborne relays.
"The Link 22 system is now ready for prime time," says Chuck Schwartz, project manager for SPAWAR's NATO Improved Link Eleven (NILE) project office. "We expect the system eventually to be adopted by more than 30 allied nations."
The project includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. This five-year contract has a five-year option that could increase the contract's value to $63 million.
The LLC 7M "is ruggedized and form-factored for easy installation, enabling Raytheon to support additional capabilities, design enhancements, and expanded use cases in the future," says John Droge, director of Secure Information Systems at Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems.
FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Ray-theon online at www.raytheon.com.
