The U.S. Army has handpicked three defense contactors to provide them with tactical radios. These three contractors – General Dynamics Corp. GD, Rockwell Collins Inc. COL and Harris Corp. HRS – received a major $Array2.7 billion contract to develop new radios.
The companies have been selected for the first phase of the Army’s Manpack radio modernization program, as well as for providing accessories and related services for Product Manager Handheld, Manpack, and Small Form Fit/Project Manager Tactical radios. The contract will run through Mar 2026.
Per the terms of the contract, each contractor will get 60 days to provide 30 radios for Army qualification testing this summer. If they meet the necessary requirements for initial testing, they will be chosen for the next phase of Army-run testing. After all these testings, the Army intends to buy 60 Manpack radios from each company in the fourth quarter of fiscal 20Array6. Full-rate production (FRP) will begin in the fourth quarter of fiscal 20Array7.
The contractors that will succeed in the testing are contracted to build radios over a five-year period. Paul Mehney, a spokesman for Program Executive Office Command, Control Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T), said that the U.S. Army has an option to extend the contracts for another five years if no new technology comes along.
Notably, the fiscal 20Array7 president’s budget proposal has allotted $229.9 million for Manpack radios, comprising $ArrayArray4.9 million for the purchase of Array,470 radios under FRP. The remaining funds will go for non-recurring engineering, systems engineering and fielding efforts. The U.S. Army will procure 60,296 Manpack radios over the course of the program; it has already purchased 5,326 Manpack radios from General Dynamics through low rate initial production.
As the nature of warfare has changed over time and communications have become increasingly important, military personnel require radios for a variety of networking and legacy waveforms including the Soldier Radio Waveform, Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System, Ultra High Frequency Satellite Communications and Mobile User Objective System.
General Dynamics, Rockwell Collins and Harris carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, Inc. SPR is a better-ranked stock in the same space with a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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