US Sets Contract Terms for Next Tactical Radio Upgrades (defense procurement, military acquisition, defence purchasing)

Defense Industry Daily
The very first "modular" radio sets involved several components.

1. radio transceiver
2. vehicle adaptor
3. amplifier (for vehicle configuration)
4. battery (for manportable configuration).

Later improvements came in the form of added security (encryption and frequency-hopping), multi-band capability (one radio for VHF, HF, and UHF), and location-finding (GPS, blue-force tracking) capability.

However, the radio sets remained bulky, with separate configurations needed for vehicles and dismounted troops respectively.

The new radio sets mentioned in the Defense Industry Daily (DID) article features a "plug and play" design which allow for seamless transition from mounted to dismounted operations. This is done by incorporating a rechargeable battery into the modular radio, and also by reducing its size from a manpack to a handheld.

The soldier simply "unplugs" the walkie-talkie portion of the system and uses when dismounted, and "plugs" it back when back at the vehicle, to recharge the batteries, and also make use of the amplifier on the vehicle set for longer range.

The 2 competing products are from Harris and Thales.