Feds award $137.8M contract to upgrade military radios

OTTAWA—The federal government has awarded a contract worth $137.8 million to General Dynamics Canada to upgrade the Canadian Armed Forces’ combat-net radios and vehicle interface units (VIUs).

The contract will see 11,060 combat net radios and 6,800 vehicle interface units upgraded over a three-year period ending in March 2017.

Combat-net radios are used in all armoured vehicles and personnel carriers for transmitting and receiving tactical voice and data communications on operations and training missions, while VIUs are amplifiers that boost the signal from the radio.

Product design and development will be conducted in Calgary, according to Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), while upgraded radios will be produced in Ottawa.

Subcontract work will be completed in Ottawa and Cornwall, Ont. by Rockwell Collins Canada Inc. and SigmaPoint Technologies Inc., respectively.

In all, the contract will support 150 jobs, PWGSC said.

The upgrades will include the replacement of cryptographic and data transmission modules in each radio, as well as modifications to the VIUs.

The data processing modules within the combat-net radios were initially purchased in 1991, and lack “sufficient capacity to exchange the volume of data required today and in the future.”

“Communication in the field has always been a key capability for the Canadian Armed Forces,” Defence Minister Rob Nicholson said in a statement. “This investment demonstrates the government’s commitment to providing our men and women in uniform with the tools they need to do their job at home and abroad.”

General Dynamics Canada is a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp.