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By Ron Coates, 28 November 2000 17:45

NEWS Telecoms equipment maker Nortel Networks is to supply the Cormorant advanced communications system for the Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF). It will be air portable and offer secure communications with the UK and units of all three services - Army, Royal Navy and RAF - anywhere in the world. Defence minister Baroness Symons said: "The JRRF was most recently deployed in Sierra Leone, but its communications equipment was designed for the Cold War in Europe and not designed to be rapidly moved by air." According to a Parliamentary Select Committee, soldiers in Kosovo were plagued with inadequate and insecure radio systems. There were also problems of intercommunication between RAF and Royal Navy units. The kit will include mobile phones and field radios already in use by the US Army. Part of the requirement set down in 1998 was to use as many off-the-shelf systems as possible. A Nortel spokesman said: "Core technology for Nortel is its Passport multi-service system, the 11 standard PABXs and terminals, base stack Ethernet and our Optivity network management system. These are all in commercial use." He added: "It's a world-beating solution highly mobile, secure and reliable." System integration is being carried out by Nortel's Newport, South Wales GPS(D) division, but manufacture of all but the US radios will be carried out in centres around the British Isles. Last week the National Audit Office reported that 'Bowman' - the 12 year-old Ministry of Defence project to produce a worldwide, seamless top-to-bottom operational communications system - had spent £330m without a single piece of usable equipment being produced.