Netherlands' MoD Awards Communication Contract to Thales

(March 3, 2008) -- On 25 January the Defence Materiel Organisation of the Netherlands' Ministry of Defence signed a contract with a value of approx. 35 million euro with Thales Nederland for the delivery of PR4G F@stnet radios in the scope of the so-called Data Communicatie Mobiel Optreden program (DCMO: Data Communication Mobile Deployment). The contract includes spare parts, training, documentation and a five-year maintenance period, with an optional extension of five years. This contracts reinforces Thales' position as preferred supplier of radios to the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA).

The DCMO contract is a part of the Battlefield Management System (BMS) program and fits in perfectly with the MoD policy on Command and Control systems for on-land missions. This policy is aimed at improving the information and command structures and to provide the operational units with an up-to-date, common operational picture (Situational Awareness). The system integration of the F@stnet radio in BMS is performed by the DMO C2 Support Centre.

The PR4G F@stnet radio is compatible with the current RNLA standard FM9000 radio. Thales supplied over 10.000 of these radios to the Netherlands' Army. In the scope of the DCMO project, a part of these radios will be upgraded. Making the PR4G F@stnet waveform available for the future Software Defined Radio, Thales offers an integrated and future-proof solution.

The selection took place after extensive competitive trials, evaluating VHF and UHF data radio technologies. The functionality and performance of the PR4G F@stnet radio was tested in combination with the BMS software application that was developed by the Ministry of Defence. The F@stnet radio fills the need for data communication within the BMS program with the emphasis on reliability, flexibility and connectivity in the mobile domain.

The F@stnet radios are a new generation PR4G radio with a new waveform that offers more data bandwidth than the present generation VHF radios. The radio also offers the capability to receive and send both data and speech simultaneously. Using the integrated IP technology, the radio meets the demand for flexibility and compatibility with open standards and is therefore the ideal transmission medium for information-processing systems in the mobile domain.

Source : Thales Nederland

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