Thales Bags Major Order for Handheld IMBITR Radios
Thales has announced its fifth order for the US Army Leader Program, valued at up to $100 million, demonstrating continued success within the US Army’s Handheld, Manpack, and Small Form Fit (HMS) Army Leader Radio Program.
The awards were made in September under the FRP-2 contracting effort and existing competitive, Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. This most recent award represents an additional 4,000-plus AN/PRC-148D 2-channel IMBITR (Improved Multi-Band Inter/Intra Team Radios), bringing the total of IMBITR radios order by the US Army to more than 14,000, the company said.
“Thales is proud to continue as a key contributor to the Army’s Leader Radio Program of Record, and the first to field the WREN-TSM waveform in support of the Integrated Tactical Network. With the new Thales IMBITR radio, Soldiers will experience continued benefits from a decisive tactical advantage that comes with using the most capable radio on the market,” said Mike Sheehan, CEO, Thales Defense & Security, Inc.
This contract demonstrates Thales’ ability to deliver mission critical capabilities into the Army’s Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) and Capability Set formations. As a critical component of the Army’s unified network strategy, the Thales IMBITR system extends advanced networking capabilities to the tactical edge, allowing warfighters increased flexibility in multi-domain operations.
In partnership with the US Army, Thales is delivering the latest WREN-TSM Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking (MANET) waveform, as well as the simultaneously critical narrowband, tactical line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications capabilities. Together, these provide cryptographically modernized assured, simultaneous networked voice, data and video communications for improved situational awareness and real-time decision-making.
The Thales AN/PRC-148D IMBITR is the first handheld radio to field the US Army Warrior Robust Enhanced Network (WREN-TSM™) waveform, which is a Type 1 robust, reliable, and scalable networking waveform capable of 800-plus nodes and operating in challenging radio frequency (RF) environments. Currently, 8,400 IMBITR radios are operationally deployed, highly successful, and a preferred solution for the Security Force Assistance Brigade and Infantry Brigade Combat Team/Stryker Brigade Combat Teams. –adj/mhi/mgm (Image: Thales)