By Jo Best, 31 March 2006 16:00
NEWS
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a deal with BAE Systems Integrated Systems Technologies for a new £200m military communications network.
The network, to be known as Falcon, is designed to give senior military commanders a high-speed, air portable network with 10 times the throughput of the current systems it is set to replace.
One of the networks which will eventually be replaced by Falcon is the army's Ptarmigan, a system which consists of trunk switches connected by satellite and multi-channel radio relay links that provides voice, data, telegraph and fax communications. Ptarmigan was also provided by BAE Systems.
According to the MoD, the introduction of Falcon will mean a smaller number of Royal Signals operators will be needed than for the current systems such as Ptarmigan.
The system will be deployed from 2010.
Comments
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1. Ken Munn
£200 million, eh?
So I guess we should count on at least a billion, and 5 years late. That seems to be the common outcome of MOD procurement projects.
2. anonymous
In 2020, it may reach the troops, meanwhile hang on to those mobile phones guys.
3. anonymous
Thanks Goodness I left the Royal Signals when I did.. Just as Ptarmigan was coming in..
I suspect I would now be facing redundancy.
4. Chris Goodman
The value of this is perhaps debateable. While it may be very nice for command levels to have instant communications, it will erode the battlefield decision making for the commander in the field as his superiors back in Wilton or London will try to make his decisions.
And if the very ancient Clansman and almost as ancient Bowman systems used by troops on the ground is not very soon modernised then there will not be much value in commanders talking to commanders. I feel that the greater priority is for the troops on the ground to have better and more radio equipments.
5. Chris Goodman
Not a lot of use to the soldiers on the ground when surrounded by 10,000 Afghan tribesmen.