System Offers BLOS COTM Communications Capabilities
Spectra Group’s US arm has been selected by the Department of Defense (DoD) to participate in the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiments (AEWE) 2019 with its SlingShot tactical communication system, the company announced on 17 January.
AEWE is the US Army’s premier venue for small unit modernisation, providing capability developers, the science and technology (S&T) community and industry with a repeatable, credible, rigorous, and validated operational experiment, supporting both concept and material development. AEWE is an annual campaign of experimentation to place cutting-edge prototype technologies into the hands of soldiers to solve small unit tactical problems. The Manoeuvre Battle Lab, as part of the Army Futures Command (AFC), executes AEWE to accelerate near and midterm Army modernisation and provide bottom-up input to capability development, by providing early and iterative feedback on prototypes in a tactical setting. AEWE is the first step of a larger Army and Joint Experimentation enterprise.
Being demonstrated at AEWE, Spectra’s SlingShot adds voice and data Beyond Line of Sight Communications On The Move (BLOS COTM) to in-service tactical VHF and UHF radios. In addition to standard voice and data command and control, it can enable capabilities such as remote biometric analysis, fire mission planning, tracking and inter-agency operations. Man-portable, vehicle, maritime or aviation-borne, useable on the move, delivering flexible channel leasing and with minimal increase in training burden, SlingShot redefines tactical communication capabilities.
“It’s an important and prestigious step for Spectra Group to be selected to take part in AEWE 2019. Our SlingShot system is already in service with the world’s premier specialist forces and it has been battle-proven on multiple occasions [….] I am confident that AEWE will provide an excellent opportunity to showcase SlingShot’s unique, widespread operational capability, which is attracting increasing attention from the Security Force Assistance Brigades, Brigade Combat Teams, FORSCOM, and indeed USMC and NG,” commented Spectra Group President Simon Davies.
