Rockwell Collins has reached a critical milestone in its airborne Software-Defined Radio (SDR) program as the National Security Agency (NSA) has issued the company a Type-1 certification for its AN/ARC-210 RT-2036(C) radio. The certification validates that the radio provides protected handling of classified information up to and including Top Secret, as required for successful military operations.

"This NSA certification is one of the final steps in getting our latest-generation airborne radio technology into the field, said Troy Brunk, vice president and general manager, Communication, Navigation and Electronic Warfare Solutions for Rockwell Collins. "With data, images, voice and video being sent from the air to the ground in real time, warfighters will have critical information at their fingertips to gain a tactical advantage on the battlefield."

The ARC-210 RT-2036(C) will enable U.S. Armed Forces to tap into new communications capabilities such as the U.S. Department of Defense's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), which has been fully implemented in the radio and is undergoing conformance testing with the U.S. Navy. The RT-2036(C) also meets the requirements for the Second-Generation Anti-Jam Tactical UHF Radio for NATO (SATURN) program while maintaining interoperability with legacy radio waveforms.

With an open-architecture design that allows for software-upgradeable capabilities in the future, the radio implements an expanded frequency range, the latest NSA algorithms and modernized Electronic Counter-Countermeasures (ECCM).

Rockwell Collins recently received a five-year IDIQ contract from the Navy for production deliveries of the ARC-210 RT-2036(C).