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Motorola introduced DynaTAC 8000x, the first commercial handheld cell phone in 1983, weighting 800gms with 10 hours of recharge time and cost $3,500-$4,000. In the early 1980s it was touted as among the greatest revolution in communication equipment for defence personnel in modern history.
Batteries have always been the major limitation for wearable computing devices including defense tactical radio for individual warfighting personnel. Lightweight, long-lasting, fast, and field-rechargeable batteries have been in heavy demand.
As Battlefield deployments could last up to 3-4 days, short-lived batteries could be fatal to personnel relying on in-uniform communications and other related devices.
Since 2018, many armies across the globe are looking to capitalize on the Internet of Things(IoT), highly secure networking along with smartphone-like computing to improve their communication. Reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements have become a reality in nearly every Defense program now.
The US Army is now looking to further integrate cloud computing technologies into military micro-cell for front role warriors and software-defined radios to connect cell phones, laptop computers, and tactical radios.
US DARPA wants communication contractors to provide long-range communication through mosaic antennas comprising low-size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) transceiver elements. The mosaic approach could also work with unmodified military tactical radios and waveforms, and still be cost-effective.
Feb 2021- Indian MoD to buy software-defined radio tech from BEL worth over $137M.
Feb 2021- Northrop Secures Australia’s $330M Deal for EW Jammers to Foil Radio-Controlled IEDs.
Dec 2020- Elbit Systems to Provide Additional Digital Soldier and Vehicular Systems under $50M deal to the Royal Netherlands Army.
Nov 2020- South Korean Military to get Samsung Smartphone-Based Combat Information Device.
Oct 2020- The Spanish Army selected Elbit Systems to supply 1000 additional E-LynX software-defined radios in a contract worth ~$7.7M.
May 2020- U.S. Navy awarded ViaSat and Data Link Solutions, a five-year contract worth ~$0.99 Billion to provide digital tactical networking and voice communications capability for U.S. and allied aircraft, land vehicles, and surface warships
May 2020– The U.S. Army awarded a contract for tactical network man-pack radios from L3Harris and Collins Aerospace worth $203.2 Million. the production will begin in Q1-2021
May 2020– US-based Silvus Technologies was awarded a $3.9 million order from the U.S. Army to provide tactical Mobile Ad Hoc (MANET) radios
March 2020- Marine corps officials awarded a $382 Million, 5-year contract to L3Harris for RF-300H-MP manpack radios, RF-300H-MP vehicle-mount radios, and RF-300H-MP radio transit cases. It is to be noted that the RF-300H delivers data 10X faster than the AN/PRC-150(C) it will replace by March 2025
Sep 2019- Collins Aerospace was awarded a contract to provide AN/ARC-210 secure avionics radios for U.S. and allied Military aviation. It will also provide additional AN/ARC-210 avionics radios and related equipment for U.S. and foreign military aircraft. The order is valued at $310 Million. The new equipment is expected to be delivered by Sep 2022
Sep 2019– Northrop Grumman was awarded a $51 Million contract to build Huntsman secure networking radio for aviation and missile-defense applications. The LX-4-SAB radio offers NSA-certified Suite B cryptography and several radio frequencies for anti-jam redundancy. The radio is water-resistant and can withstand temperature extremes, wind, rain, snow and dust.
June 2019- Naval Information Warfare Systems Command in San Diego awarded a $41.5 Million 5-year contract to L-3.HF radio. L-3 will do the work in Camden and should be finished by June 2024
May 2019– Israel-based Elbit Technologies was awarded a $127 Million contract to supply vehicular tactical radio systems. The vehicular tactical radio systems will be delivered in 2022. The radios will include multiple configurations for the integration of a range of armored vehicles and tanks
Feb 2019– New Zealand Army awarded Harris Defence Australia a $40 Million contract for a new tactical communications network. Till Jan 2019, the Australian defence forces had some 20,000 Harris radios across land, sea and air platforms.
US Army is expected to spend $9.6 Billion between 2020-2025 to upgrade communication equipment. The investment will be made for the 2-channel Leader radio, the Manpack radio and the Rifleman radio The critical design review for Capability Set`21 has already been conducted.
The global Defense tactical radio market is estimated at $XX Billion in 2024 growing at –% CAGR till 2030
The defence tactical radio market has about 15 major suppliers who rely on cutting-edge R&D for new product development.
The L3Harris has developed an RF-410 Next Generation Power Amplifier (NGPA) which maximizes mission flexibility and enhances tactical agility by eliminating the need for multiple power amplifiers. It is lightweight and provides radio-agnostic capabilities and multiband support. The radio offers access to networked voice and data, over the frequency range of 30-2600 MHz
Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), South Korea has announced that the South Korean military will receive a Samsung smartphone-based device to view real-time battle information without relying on communications networks, by mid-2021.
US Army has asked new vendors to help them with radios that can integrate with augmented reality system, IVAS (Integrated Visual Augmentation System). The U.S. Army researchers have developed an innovative soldier decision-making system which is based on Cross Reality (XR), an augmented-mixed and virtual reality, that allows warfighters to retrieve relevant information quickly in support of mission-critical decisions.
India’s BEL has developed a software-defined radio-Tac, which is a four Channel Multi-mode, Multi-Band, 19’’ Rack-mountable, ship-borne Software Radio system, that will help the Navy for quick data communications.
L3Harris introduced the RF-300H wideband radio system in Q1- 2017 to enable personnel to use wide-band HF to transmit data files beyond the line of sight. Harris was also among the very first companies to to deploy software-defined radios (SDRs) based on specifications from the now-defunct Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) program.
Collins cryptography is using Tactical Secure Voice Suite B algorithms to secure the ARC-210 radios. Rohde & Schwarz was awarded a $16 Million- 7-year contract in April 2018 for shipboard and mobile long-range communications. The deliverable included HF radio transceiver systems from the company’s series 2000 and 4100 radio communications families.
In Jan 2020, BAE Systems completed the acquisition of Raytheon Technologies Corporation’s Airborne Tactical Radios business after receiving regulatory and other customary approvals. In the very same month, Northrop Grumman won a contract to develop an open architecture radio for the USAF battle management system. The contract is aimed at providing four radio frequency waveforms: Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL), Link-16 CMN-4, Common Data Link (CDL), and Multi-User Objective System (MUOS).