Spanish Army Looks to Complete PR4G Radio Rollout

in 1992, the Spanish Army began replacing its man-portable and vehicle radios with Amper’s PR4G series, which offered improved encryption in a package that allows for software upgrades instead of costly, time-consuming, and difficult hardware upgrades. A number of units have already been equipped with these “software-defined” radios, and Spain’s Ejercito de Tierra wants to complete the rollout. To that end, on Aug 31/07 Spain’s Council of Ministers has authorized [en Espanol] a EUR 180 million (about $245 million) buy of PR4G Version 3 tactical radios and accessories between 2007-2011. Contracts will follow, but the broad thrust and budget set asides are now agreed. These new radios bring a number of new capabilities to the table… P4RG vehicle radio(click to view larger) The new radio equipment is based on the French PR4G VHF standard, and Amper is partnered with Thales to produce it. The radios are compatible with previous generations, and incorporate new data transmission capacities which quadruple the speed of the previous generation. A cutting-edge digital voice coder (vocoder) which ensures the highest quality voice transmissions during all propagation conditions or when clutter is present. F@stnet protocol supports both voice and data transfer, retaining the system’s frequency hopping and […]