LONDON — Now free of restrictions over the announcement of contracts in the run-up to the general election in the U.K., the Ministry of Defence has confirmed it signed a deal with a Leonardo-Hensoldt team to equip the British military with a new generation of identification friend or foe systems.

The Leonardo-Hensoldt partnership, known as Team Skytale, signed the production deal in May with the Defence Equipment and Support arm of the MoD.

Under British election convention, the government had to refrain from announcing the contract until after polling day.  

The contract, valued at £260 million (U.S. $330 million), will see Skytale supply over 350 systems to upgrade legacy U.K. aircraft, naval vessels and ground-based air defence systems with an out-of-service date after 2020.

Royal Air Force Sentry aircraft, the Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyers and the British Army's high velocity missile multiple launcher system will be among the in-service platforms to be updated to Mode 5 by Skytale.

Leonardo has already supplied Mode 5 to the RAF's Typhoon fleet and the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers, the first of which is expected to start sea trials in the next few weeks.

The MoD said in a statement that platforms coming into service in the future, including the F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft and Apache AH64E helicopters, are being fitted with Mode 5 under separate contracts over the course of their construction.

With the election behind it, at least for the time being, the cash-strapped MoD is now clear to start rolling out any deals that have been on the stocks during what is known as the purdah period.

A major deal with BAE to build the first three Type 26 frigates for the Royal Navy could be among further contact announcements before Parliament goes into summer recess in mid-July.

Skytale was selected as the preferred contractor for the supply of the new Mode 5 NATO standard IFF equipment almost 12 months ago.

The Skytale partnership secured the deal after beating a Raytheon/Thales team to the contract following a 12 month competitive assessment phase.

Separately, Leonardo is also undertaking a

technology demonstrator program for Britain's MoD studying a new Mode 5 IFF system for the Typhoon incorporating active electronically scanned antenna technology.

The company said it has already test flown an aircraft with updated systems and plans further flights in the near future

"We flew an aircraft with the new transponder/crypto units in the fourth quarter of last year, which provided a lot of useful data for the ongoing development. E-scan antennas and the new interrogator unit are scheduled for test flights this summer," said a spokesman for Leonardo’s U.K. operations.

All NATO nations are mandated to switch to the new Mode 5 standard IFF by 2020, which uses advanced cryptographic techniques to secure the systems against electronic deception.

Aircraft can continue to fly without Mode 5 after that date, but they cannot take part in operations with NATO allies.

Other air forces that want to conduct operations with NATO will also require Mode 5.

Leonardo and Hensoldt, formerly the Airbus defense electronics business before it was sold to private equity firm KKR, have recently signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly offer their IFF portfolio’s internationally to take advantage of that requirement.

Leonardo said the team offers the only source of cryptography key generation technology available outside of the U.S., providing an entirely European source of Mode 5 IFF capability.

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

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