NEWS IN BRIEF
By Julian Nettlefold, Editor BATTLESPACE and Adam Baddeley, Deputy Editor
EUROPE
15 Sep 05. Dissatisfied with Turkish industry’s role on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, officials in Ankara are dropping their commitment to buy the U.S.-designed combat jet. Turkey is the second JSF partner nation to indicate it would not automatically purchase the new fighter. Norway voiced similar concerns regarding its industry’s JSF work, and also said it would consider the Eurofighter Typhoon and other aircraft as its next fighter. “We are also definitely interested in the Eurofighter. … At the end of 2006, we will see if we can take part in the production phase of the JSF,” said Murad Bayar, head of the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries. “We may buy only the JSF, only the Eurofighter, or a combination of both.”
16 Sep 05. Datron deliveries to ANA and new multi mode radio. The Afghan National Army (ANA) are in the process of taking delivery of suite of Datron’s fixed, vehicular and dismounted radio sets down to the squad and platoon level, the latest and largest order for the company’s radios for Afghan forces. Datron’s relationship with the ANA began in 2003 via an order by the Office of Military Co-operation in Afghanistan for over 300 systems. In 2004 a number of manufacturers were invited to bid for several thousand systems for the ANA under the aegis of CECOM. That contract was awarded in December 2004 and covered a mix of several thousand Datron’s PRC1077 manpack and handheld PRC1060 VHF and PRC1099A man pack and RF7000 fixed/mobile HF radios. Roughly 80 percent of the radios are in the VHF category. Deliveries began in April 2005 and will continue into mid 2006. Datron are also providing a growing level of in-house support to the ANA via the deployment of support experienced RF technicians from the Central Asian region. The radios replaced Soviet R123 and R130 radios as well as US PRC-77s. In total $48.2m has been provided to the ANA for radios and support with the British government contributing a further $6m. Datron have recently achieved sales of their PRC4100M Multiband Tactical Manpack 1.5-108MHz software defined radio to an undisclosed US domestic customer. A unique feature of the PRC4100 family is that the frequency range is determined by an appliqué module that fit s to the side of the radio allowing the based PRC4100 radio to switch between VHF, HF and HF/VHF multiband appliqué according to mission requirements. The 10.25lb radio, including battery is MIL-STD-810F compliant, and supports HF data rates of 9.6Kbops and VHF rates of 16Kbps. AB
USA
15 Sep 05. New GD products for C2 and CSAR. General Dynamics C4 Systems have embarked on a campaign to market their successful Unit Operations Center, now in service with the USMC to wider audience. Beginning at the start of this year the UOC – NATO Compatible has been demonstrated to a series of defence delegations at the USMC’s base at Quantico with visits from New NATO member as well as from Asian based militaries. The modular design is described by GD and permitted simple integration of new external communications linking the IP based HQ environment to a wider network. At DSEi, GD was also promoting the Hook 2 Base Station. Based in a ruggedised transit case and comprising an AN/PRC-112G, UHF Satcom antenna and ruggedised laptop into which the Quickdraw interrogator software is integrated and then matched with other applications as the user sees fit, allowing remote users to access BLOS messages from other Hook users and for example placing them accurately on a detailed GIS integrated with further situational awareness information. A number of roles are being considered such as a quick set up, local HQ for personnel recovery; a relay station between different UHF satellite footprints or adding a LPI/PLD C2 messaging link between Special Forces and Blue Force Tracking users. Final development is now underway with a productionised soluti