Raytheon gets Air Force order for secure communications units

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.

Raytheon Co., of Waltham, Mass., ranks No. 4 on Washington Technology’s 2010 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.