The Royal Air Force is set for a communications upgrade, following the signing of a £45m deal between the Ministry of Defence and supplier BAE Systems Insyte.
New facilities for RAF staff include improved telecommunications, data distribution, command and control, logistics and aircraft-specific mission and planning systems.
The contract, signed on Friday, is an extension of the armed forces' Falcon communications system and will support air-force operations around the globe.
Lord Drayson, minister of state for defence equipment and support, said: "Falcon is a major upgrade to the RAF's ability to handle complex network-enabled operations on deployed operating bases. It will deliver, more reliably than the current system, improved capacity and functionality for voice and data traffic, while reducing the service personnel required to operate and support the system."
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Falcon is designed to operate with other communication and information systems, such as Bowman, Cormorant and Skynet Five, which have been introduced progressively since 2002. It will also be fully compatible with other Nato systems.
The Falcon project is managed by the Theatre and Formation Communications Systems project team, based at the Defence Procurement Agency in Bristol.
"I am particularly pleased that this contract will sustain 35 hi-tech jobs, boosting the 450 jobs already created or sustained under the project," Drayson added.
Talkback
"I am particularly pleased that this contract will sustain 35 hi-tech jobs"
35 jobs?! Great! I suppose makes up for doing business that puts pressure on the UK government to stop police investigations into a bribery scandal involving BAE, the House of Saud and the Bin Laden family. Nice.