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Raytheon awarded $63M NATO data link contract

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Petty Officer 2nd Class Kindred Heard, from Loachapoka, Ala., communicates with the guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup on a Link 11 data terminal, coordinating a tactical data picture for the Abraham Lincoln Strike Group in the display and tracking module of the combat direction center aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility to support Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom as well as maritime security operations.

Raytheon has been awarded a NATO contract, worth up to $63 million, for data links.

Under the contract, Raytheon will provide NATO Improved Link Eleven (NILE)/Link 22 Modernized Link Level COMSEC (LLC 7M) production and sustainment, according to the Department of Defense contract announcement.

“The NILE LLC 7M is planned for use in airborne, surface, subsurface and ground based applications by the NILE nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain and the U.S.), as well as all nations approved for Foreign Military Sales cases and as Link 22 third parties in the future,” the DoD said. 

The contract includes a five-year base period and a five-year option period. 

About 

Michael Peck is a correspondent for Defense News and a columnist for the Center for European Policy Analysis. He holds an M.A. in political science from Rutgers University. Find him at theuncommondefense.com. His email is mikedefense1@gmail.com.