Raytheon to provide cyber security and cryptographic capability for secure voice communications
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas, 20 Dec. 2016.Cyber security experts at the Raytheon Co. will provide up-to-date cryptographic capabilities for military secure voice communications under terms of a $459 million five-year U.S. Air Force contract announced last week.
Officials of the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, are asking the Raytheon Secure Information Systems segment in Fort Wayne, Ind., to provide full-rate production of National Security Agency (NSA)-certified encryption for U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) secure voice communications.
The secure communications systems involved in this contract are the Advanced Narrowband Digital Voice Terminal (ANDVT) and the VINSON family of voice encryption devices. Together, these two devices are part of the VINSON ANDVT Cryptographic Modernization program, otherwise known as VACM.
The VACM End Cryptographic Unit (ECU) is to maintain function and capability of the existing VINSON and ANDVT ECUs with NSA Type 1 encryption -- specifically the NSA classified Suite A SAVILLE encryption algorithm, as well as 16-kilobit-per-second continuously variable slope delta modulation (CVSD) audio compression.
Related: Raytheon to fix software problems in Air Force cyber security and cryptographic system
The VACM program seeks to replace legacy cryptographic units to provide tactical secure voice on UHF and VHF line-of-sight radios and UHF satellite communications (SATCOM) tactical phone systems. These terminals provide classified as well as unclassified military communications.
The ANDVT is a secure voice terminal for low-bandwidth secure voice communications throughout the U.S. military. Devices in the ANDVT family include the AN/USC-43 Tactical Terminal (TACTERM); the KY-99A Miniaturized Terminal (MINTERM); and the KY-100 Airborne Terminal (AIRTERM).
In addition to the ANDVT, VINSON also is embedded into modern military radios like the Single-Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS). Some multi-algorithm communications security modules also are backward-compatible with VINSON.
On this contract Raytheon will do the work in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Largo, Fla., and should be finished by December 2021. For more information contact Raytheon online at www.raytheon.com, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at www.wpafb.af.mil/aflcmc.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
