Army awards contract for JTRS radios
- By Dawn S. Onley
- Jul 23, 2004
The Army has awarded a contract to General Dynamics Corp. to design and develop small, lightweight software-programmable radios under the Joint Tactical Radio System contract. A team led by General Dynamics will modify commercial hardware and software products and develop single- and dual-channel handhelds and small backpack radios, known as Cluster Five radios, according to an Army announcement.
Under the seven-year contract, General Dynamics will receive at least $295 million and could earn more than $1 billion if all options are exercised.
JTRS will field software-programmable radios that provide multichannel voice, data, imagery and video communications. JTRS radios can be upgraded with new software via a wireless information network.
The radios will replace more than 25 types of military radios currently in use.