Tanks: Bengaluru-based Firm To Supply 400 Software-defined Radios For Army Tanks | Bengaluru News
“The Indian Army has taken a giant step in ordering 400 SDR Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFVs) for their tank fleet. We have already signed the contract and production is underway. We have also offered our handheld SDRs to meet the requirements of Indian soldiers and they have already been evaluated by the Army recently,” Col (retd) HS Shankar, CMD, ADTL, told TOI.
The SPTs, according to the Army contingency contract, are for all tank platforms. The Adani Group-backed firm had earlier manufactured and delivered 5,000 Combat Net Radio stations (CNRs) — an older version of communication equipment — for tanks.
“Defense forces around the world are changing their tactical communication systems and equipment from conventional analog or semi-digital fixed frequencies (different versions of data in separate frequency bands) to single all-in-one radios based on software algorithms to operate over a full frequency bands, including satellite communication bands. The current trend is to move towards SDR, which runs on embedded high-end software-oriented algorithms based on waveforms, equipped with additional features such as high hop rate, anti-squelch encryption for voice, data, video, IP and mobile ad- hoc network etc,” Shankar said.
Pointing out that Indian industries such as Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), ADTL and DRDO have been working on such technologies for many years, Shankar said that while the Navy has been supplying SDRs from DRDO/BEL, ADTL is working to meet the needs of the Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) for more than a decade.
Looking to the future, ADTL recently achieved interoperability of its SDR with that of another firm used by the IAF. Although there are no IAF orders yet, the technology, ADTL says, has demonstrated an advantage when it comes to working with radios using legacy technology and could be a game-changer for the global market as well.
As interoperability features are developed, ADTL is also working with Elbit-Israel to exploit the export potential of such systems.
“As a technology-oriented R&D and manufacturing company, we have made significant efforts through our more than 30 young teams of software and firmware experts. We recently achieved a breakthrough and offered our equipment to the Army and IAF to meet the needs of tactical communication systems.” Shankar explained.
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