Air Force orders secure comm systems to halt fratricide
The Air Force has chosen Raytheon Co. to supply it with almost 2,000 additional encrypted communications systems aimed at preventing fratricide among U.S. and coalition forces.
Raytheon Co. will supply the Air Force with almost 2,000 additional encrypted communications systems at a cost of $20.7 million.
The Air Force award calls for the delivery of more than 1,900 KIV-77 Mode 4/5 cryptographic computer units, which provide secure communications for combat force identification, according to a Raytheon statement dated May 25.
The KIV-77 Mode 4/5 encrypted computers provide secure air, land and surface combat-identification capability.
The ultimate goal is the prevention of fratricide among U.S. and coalition forces, Brian McKeon, vice president of Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems' Integrated Communications Systems, said in the announcement.
This Air Force award brings Raytheon's orders for the KIV-77 to more than 3,600 units.
Raytheon is under contract for additional orders and deliveries of the KIV-77 into 2014, and the company expects to be in continual production through 2020, according to the announcement.
The first KIV-77 Mode 4/5 units were delivered to the Air Force in March 2010, part of a five-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract.