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Tadiran Communications received an $20.5 million value contract modification from Israel’s Ministry of Defense for more next-generation software-definable radio communications systems. This is an add-on to a similar $19.6 million order the company received on December 2005. The company release describes the radios as “providing high-speed simultaneous voice and data communications capabilities and supporting multiple advanced communications protocols,” and referred to the contract in terms such as “great strategic importance for Tadiran Communications, and we continue to see it as the company’s flagship project for the coming decade….”

DID is attempting to get confirmation from Tadiran, but this would seem to make the radios part of Israel’s advanced Tsayad communications system, which is intended to be the backbone of Israel’s “network-centric warfare” capabilities. The system has received praise for its smooth progress in comparison to US programs like JTRS. Having said that, there has also been criticism that the monies plowed into Tsayad were a mistake because they came at the budgetary expense and basic readiness and equipment. The loss of protection and firepower was not offset by the communications gain, and so it is argued that Tsayad became a net negative to the Israeli military’s 2006 Lebanon campaign.

Tadiran’s release also announced about $100 million in other orders since August 2006, destined for the USA, Germany, and anonymous countries in Africa and Asia. See also DID’s recent coverage of Israel’s 2006 defense export totals