Deliveries Against $44 Million Award Already Commenced

Leonardo DRS has received a $44 million (€37.4 million) contract to provide advanced situational awareness hardware and software for an allied Middle Eastern customer, the company announced on 14 October. Delivery has already commenced and will be completed by next year.

The company’s Land Electronics business unit will provide a significant number of tactical mission systems to be installed on a wide range of tactical vehicles across a number of brigades. At the core of the architecture is the latest version of the Leonardo DRS tactical voice, data and video tactical server, data distribution unit – block 4 (DDU-4), an upgraded digital vehicle intercom system and new rugged multi-touch commander’s display.

The new Leonardo DRS DDU-4 at the heart of the system provides class-leading processing capability, an integrated router, LTE and GPS along with communications cross-banding, together with video and voice management. These new products owe much to Leonardo DRS’ development of tactical computing products for the US Army and other allies. “Our solutions leverage many of the same technologies used in our products for the US Army’s Mounted Family of Computer Systems (MFOCS) II programme,” commented Bill Guyan, Senior VP/General Manager of the Land Electronics business.

The tactical mission systems are designed to provide an ultra-reliable on-the-move computing capability with the latest cyber-secure COTS technologies for mission-critical applications in harsh environments. In addition, the technology will deliver compatibility with other allied militaries using similar systems, including the United States.