firm has been awarded a contract to supply its CD-116/P tactical field switchboards to the Bangladesh Army in a deal worth circa $1.2 million. The force has, according to the company, used these switchboards since 2011 and this latest order, announced in late July, represents its seventh such acquisition, although the number of units to be supplied by the firm has not been disclosed. According to EID’s official literature, the CD-116/P can be used for the switching of analogue and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) telephony, tactical radios, and public analogue and digital networks. Elsewhere in Europe, on 11th July, Rohde and Schwarz announced that it had been awarded a contract to outfit 50 command vehicles belonging to the Heer (German Army) with the company’s SVFUA radio system as part of the force’s Mobile Tactical Communications (MOTAKO) programme. The radio will outfit 50 of the army’s ARTEC Boxer-CP eight-wheel drive armoured vehicles, and its Krauss-Maffei Wegmann/Rheinmetall tracked infantry fighting vehicles, with deliveries of the first systems being concluded by 2020, according to a press release announcing the news. Open sources note that the SVFUA radio will cover the 1.5MHz to three gigahertz frequency range. In terms of the radio’s waveforms, sources continue that these will include both new and legacy waveforms, such as the HAVEQUICK-I/II air-to-ground/ground-to-air digital waveform used throughout NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) and the Multiple Adaptive HF Radio System waveform, and new waveforms such as COALWNW (Coalition Wideband Networking Waveform). In the airborne domain, Thales announced that it expects the airborne version of its SYNAPS tactical radio family to be available for integration from circa 2020. Speaking during the Paris Air Show this June company officials told AMR that the development of the V/UHF airborne member of the SYNAPS family is ongoing. This radio, like the other transceivers in the SYNAPS series, is in fact a spin-off from Thales’ CONTACT programme which is rolling out new V/UHF handheld, vehicular and airborne radios to the French armed forces. The SYNAPS radios are being produced with the international market in mind and will thus be devoid of the French proprietary encryption which will equip the CONTACT transceivers. Thales added that the SYNAPS and CONTACT airborne radios will be capable of hosting the HAVEQUICK-I/II waveform. It will also
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Electronic Warfare
In early July the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) awarded BAE Systems a contract worth $67 million to develop a new Radio Frequency Countermeasure (RFCM) to equip the USAF’s Lockheed Martin AC-130J Ghostrider fixedwing gunships and MC-130J Commando-II special missions aircraft. A press release announcing the news stated that the RFCM would be installed on the aircraft to detect and jam hostile surface-to-air and air-to-air RF threats. The press release continued that the installation of the RFCM on these aircraft is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. Open source USAF literature states that, at present, the Block-20 configuration of the AC-130J is outfitted with Northrop Grumman’s Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasure, which is reportedly fitted to Thales
EID Additional examples of EID’s PRC-525 tactical radio will be made to the Portuguese Army, to supplement the company’s legacy PRC-425 systems. EID also announced the supply of new tactical field switchboards to the Bangladesh Army.
be able to host NATO’s SATURN (Second Generation Anti-Jam Tactical Ultra High Frequency Radio) waveform which uses the improved HAVEQUICK-IIA waveform as its core. This latter waveform increased the number of hops that the waveform can undertake to preserve communications security. HAVEQUICK-I/ II is used by nearly all military aircraft throughout NATO. Furthermore, General Dynamics launched a new survival radio for downed aircrew in late-July. Known as the Hook-3, the radio is designed for encrypted communications, the company revealed, with the ability to transmit geo-location information when the radio detects specific g-forces or salt water. The company continued that it is 30 percent smaller and 40 percent lighter than the firm’s existing AN/PRC-112G/Hook-2 survival radio, with which the Hook-3 radio is fully interoperable. The new radio is also compatible with the firm’s Quickdraw-2 interrogator. This can be connected to an aircraft’s intercom to allow the aircrew to perform direct communications with the downed aircrew’s survival radio, and it can also display the latter radio’s global positioning system coordinates. According to the firm’s published information, the Hook-3 radio operates on the 112.5MHz, 123.1MHz, 225MHz to 320MHz and the 406MHz International Cospas-Sarsat satellite communications distress frequencies. This latter programme is an international humanitarian initiative comprising 43 nations and agencies which works to detect and locate distress beacons using satellites.
Thales has announced new advances regarding its SYNAPS tactical radio family, the vehicular version of which is pictured here. The firm is now advancing the airborne element of the SYNAPS series, which it expects to be available for integration from 2020.
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