Thales, Harris Win $3.8 Billion US Army Rifleman Radio Contract

Thales and Harris Corp were selected by the US Army for its $3.8 billion Rifleman Radio contract for the next ten years.

After a decade, the US Army sought bids for two new radios. General Dynamics Corp., decided to not bid for the contract to produce a new version.

The Army has bought 11,000 rifleman radios from a General Dynamics-Thales team in low-rate production orders over several years. The new solicitation for the full-rate production deal requires a different radio, equipped with a panel display instead of buttons.

Rifleman radios are intended to be rugged, lightweight and handheld for troops to transmit voice and data communications through the Soldier Radio Waveform application and the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical.

The platform also aims to help an operator to send messages, access applications and track another user’s location by connecting with Android phones designed to run on the Net Warrior system.