AAI Corporation, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company, has received a $32+ million award from the U.S. Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems Project Office at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, for engineering and manufacturing activities to enhance the Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System (TUAS) with the tactical common data link (TCDL).

The TCDL is a Ku-band digital data link that delivers wide-bandwidth communications using common data link, or CDL, waveform standards. It is being integrated using a NATO standardization agreement (STANAG) 4586-compliant architecture that enables interoperability with the latest NATO and U.S. Army standards. The enhanced system will be designed to provide Shadow TUAS users a common interface with other military systems that incorporate TCDL and these interoperability standards, including the Extended-Range, Multi-Purpose Sky Warrior(r) unmanned aircraft system (UAS), the Hunter UAS, and the Apache helicopter. TCDL can accommodate state-of-the-art digital sensor technology. In addition, its encryption capabilities provide enhanced data security.