BAE Systems said that is has been awarded a contract worth up to $84.7 million to provide the U.S. Navy with the ability to simultaneously transmit and receive real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data from multiple sources and exchange command and control information across disparate networks. The echnology is known as the Network Tactical Common Data Link (NTCDL) System, and will, according to BAE, allow the Navy to share ISR data across platforms and networks.

The BAE Systems technology will allow the Navy to share ISR data .NTCDL uses a real-time exchange of voice, data, imagery, and full-motion video from a variety of sources, including air, surface, subsurface, and human-portable. With NTCDL, personnel will be able to support multiple, simultaneous networked operations using Common Data Link (CDL) equipment, as well as manned and unmanned platforms. Initial systems will be installed on Navy aircraft carriers and large-deck amphibious ships.

Common Data Link refers to a secure U.S. military communications protocol established by the Department of Defense in 1991 as the military’s primary protocol for imagery and signals intelligence. Operating at data rates up to 274 megabits per second, CDL allows for full duplex data exchange. CDL signals are transmitted, received, synchronized, routed, and simulated by CDL interface boxes.

NTCDL is designed to increase link capacity and embrace waveform evolution. The technology uses an open-systems architecture with non-proprietary interfaces, and is reprogrammable so that it can adapt.

BAE Systems is the project’s prime contractor. It will work with Colorado-based Ball Aerospace to advance the two companies’ joint Multi Link CDL Systems development efforts. The work will be performed primarily at BAE Systems’ U.S. facilities in Wayne, N.J. and Greenlawn, N.Y.