Raytheon Lands $63M Navy Contract to Produce Tactical Data Encryption Tech; John Droge Comments

Raytheon has received a potential 10-year, $63 million contract from the U.S. Navy to manufacture encryption devices in an effort to help protect military tactical data transmissions across various platforms.

The Navy intends for the Link Level Communication Security 7M encryptor to secure the Link 22 tactical radio system the U.S. military and allies use to send data across air, surface, subsurface and ground assets, Raytheon said Wednesday.

Link 22 is meant to replace the Link 11 radio system and designed to integrate with the current Link 16 system to provide beyond-line-of-sight communications with no satellite or airborne relay requirements.

“The LLC 7M flexible platform is ruggedized and form-factored for easy installation, enabling Raytheon to support additional capabilities, design enhancements and expanded use cases in the future,” said John Droge, director of secure information systems at Raytheon’s space and airborne systems unit.

“LLC 7M is available to U.S. military operators and under foreign military sales through the [Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command’s] Indefinite Delivery Requirements contract vehicle,” added Droge.

The encryption device recently achieved the National Security Agency‘s Type 1 certification for classified information security up to the secret level in the Link 22 ecosystem.

LLC 7M is under development as part of NATO’s Improved Link Eleven project.

The contract has a five-year base value of $32 million and a five-year option period.