SAN DIEGO, 19 Sept. 2010.Military communications experts at the General Dynamics C4 Systems segment in Scottsdale, Ariz., are providing the U.S. Navy with the Digital Modular Radio (DMR) system under terms of a $146.3 million contract awarded late last week. The General Dynamics DMR is a standard software-defined radio that operates operate aboard U.S. Navy surface warships and submarines and fixed-sites using frequencies ranging from 2 MHz to 2 GHz.
Navy officials consider General Dynamics to be the only qualified manufacturing source for the DMR because the company was the developer of DMR hardware, operating software, software waveforms, radio control software, and the cryptographic algorithm generating software for the embedded cryptographic modules in the radio. General Dynamics also is providing DMR high frequency distribution amplifiers.
Awarding the contract were officials of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) in San Diego. General Dynamics will do the work in Scottsdale, Ariz.; Crawley, England; and Clarksburg, Md., and should be finished by May 2013. If all options are exercised, work could continue until September 2018, Navy officials say. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would increase its value to an estimated $544 million.
The compact, multi-channel DMR provides several different waveforms and multi-level information security for voice and data communications. Software-defined radio waveforms are software applications that enable the radio to perform its various functions over HF, VHF, UHF, and SATCOM channels.
For more information contact General Dynamics C4 Systems online at www.gdc4s.com, or SPAWAR at www.spawar.navy.mil.
