The U.S. Army has awarded a delivery order valued at $29.8 million to Ultra Electronics for the latter’s ORION Radio Systems. The order, which is part of the $500 million indefinite award/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract awarded to Ultra Electronics earlier in 2019, will be predominantly fulfilled throughout 2020. The ORION tactical radios will be used in support of the Army’s terrestrial transmission line-of-sight (TRILOS) radio program. The ORION radios are software-defined-radio (SDR) systems which provide flexibility in the field through programmable performance functions and characteristics, such as operating frequency and bandwidth.
Iwan Jemczyk, president of Ultra Electronics TCS, commented: “The ORION radio system is a transformational tactical communications technology and a key component of the U.S. Army’s Network Modernization strategy. We are pleased to be a valued team member and will continue to support the U.S. DOD’s objectives for resilient, easy-to-use, high-performance communications systems.” The multiple-band, multiple-channel ORION radios employ multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna techniques to create directional signal beams for increased operating range at higher frequencies (like antenna techniques used in 5G commercial cellular wireless communications networks). The advanced ORION radios make possible a unified heterogeneous wireless network (HETNET) capable of supporting a diversity of user requirements and resilient network operations in contested and congested environments.