Armada’s monthly roundup of all the latest news in the military communications product, programme and operational domains.
Thor radios for Norway
Officials from Kongsberg have told Armada that the company will begin deliveries of its Thor tactical radio in the 2025 to 2026 timeframe. The officials were speaking during the Eurosatory defence exhibition held in Paris between 17th and 21st June. Thor has been selected by the Norwegian armed forces as part of the country’s overarching military communications modernisation initiative known as Mime. The Kongsberg officials said they expect to begin shipping Thor radios to the Norwegian military in the same timeframe. Thor is expected to be installed in Hæren (Norwegian Army) vehicles. The dual channel, multiband radio covers frequencies of three megahertz to three gigahertz. The 20-watt transceiver has embedded AES-256 encryption and handles data at between 600 bits-per-second to 2.5 megabits-per-second, according to company literature. Kongsberg officials added that the Norwegian military is expected to furnish their radios with standard waveforms such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s HAVEQUICK air-to-surface/surface-to-air protocol. As Jane’s reported in May, the Thor contract is valued at $22.9 million.
TAC WINs
Bittium announced in early June that the company’s Tactical Wireless Internet Protocol Network (TAC WIN) and Tough SDR tactical radios had been accepted by the Croatian Ministry of Defence (MOD). A company press release announcing the news stated that the acceptance followed an implementation process performed by the Hrvatska Ratna Mornarica (Croatian Navy). Speaking during the Eurosatory exhibition, held in Paris between 17th and 21st June, Bittium sources said that TAC WIN will form the navy’s communications backbone. TAC WIN provides a deployable, secure, wireless internet protocol network with achievable data rates of circa 50 megabits-per-second. Tough SDR radios are deployed on Croatian Navy vessels to provide fleet-wide communications. These radios cover a waveband of 30 megahertz to 5.2 gigahertz. Bittium sources continued that the navy’s radios will include the European Secure Software-Defined Radio (ESSOR) waveform. This represents one of the first publicly declared provisions of ESSOR beyond the militaries of the ESSOR partner nations. The sources added that the Croatian MOD is expected to explore the modernisation of the tactical communications used by the Karlovac (Croatian Army) in the near future.
by Dr. Thomas Withington
