NTRC has commenced deliveries of new P-25 transceiver

Pakistan’s NRTC has told MONCh that it is in the process of delivering its P-25 Very/Ultra High Frequency (V/UHF: 300 megahertz to three gigahertz) Personal Role Radio (PRR) to the Pakistan Army. The radio is equipping the army at the squad/platoon level with an individual transceiver which can be used for small unit communications. In addition, the company disclosed during the DSA 2018 exhibition being held in Kuala Lumpur between 16 April and 19 April that it is equipping Pakistan’s paramilitary organisations with the same materiel, notably the country’s Frontier Corps which protects Pakistan’s borders.

NRTC declined to provide significant details regarding the technical particulars of the P-25, although it is thought that the transceiver, as its name suggests, can carry the APCO-25 public safety waveform. This would allow both army and paramilitary units equipped with the radio to communicate with civilian first responders. This is an important consideration for Pakistan, given that military, paramilitary and civilian agencies are often called upon to respond to terrorist attacks, and to assist during the aftermath of natural disasters. Notably, NRTC also provides upgraded Associated Industries AN/PRC-77 VHF MANPACK tactical radios to the Pakistan Army, and also to the armies of Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.

This initiative retrofits the radio’s legacy solid state electronics with a new chassis which includes contemporary digital components, software and encryption. This radio transmits across a waveband of 30MHz to 52.975MHz in low band VHF and 53MHz to 75.975MHz in high band VHF. It carries 1,840 channels with 25 kilohertz of channel spacing.  

Thomas Withington