The UK’s army is to deploy the £200m Falcon battlefield
communications network under a contract with BAE
Systems.
Due to enter service in 2010, the contract was signed between
the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) and BAE Systems Integrated
System Technologies (Insyte).
The Falcon network will be used by senior commanders to control
combat operations at corps, divisional and brigade level. It will
have up to 50 times the data throughput capacity of the systems it
replaces.
The government said Falcon will improve the army's
communications network, and reduce the number of Royal Signals
vehicles and personnel needed to support army headquarters.
Falcon will be integrated with the army’s existing Bowman
tactical communications system and the Cormorant command
system.
Bowman will feed information into Falcon, which will be able to
link back to UK headquarters using the Skynet 5 satellite
communications system.
Falcon replaces systems including Ptarmigan, Euromux, and the
RAF Transportable Telecommunications System (RTTS).
The Falcon project is being managed by the Theatre and Formation
Communication Systems project team, which is based at the DPA in
Bristol.