Communication is vital and critical to all military operations. Combat Net Radio (CNR) is the mainstay of communications for the Indian Army on the battlefield. Modern CNR equipment in the Indian Army supports only voice communication and has limited or no data transmission capabilities.
To arm soldiers with the benefits of technology and prepare them to wage war in a non-centric combat space, existing radios will soon be replaced by locally developed Software defined radio (SDR), which have improved data transmission capability, improved voice clarity, and data transmission accuracy in a spectrally noisy environment, support multiple waveforms, greater system security, and better communication survivability in clear and secure regime to meet the operational requirements of the Indian Army, the Ministry of Defense said.
The Indian Army is in the process of upgrading its communications systems by procuring high-frequency (V / UHF) Manpack SDRs in the Make-II category. Following a successful evaluation of the suppliers’ responses, a project sanction order (PSO) has already been issued to 18 Indian suppliers to start developing a prototype. The contract will be signed with one of the companies after successful development of a prototype, according to the provisions of the Buy Indian-IDDM category from DAP 2020, the ministry said.
The development of a V / UHF Manpack SDR under Make-II will change the game of the Indian Army. This is in line with the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat policy, which will lead to self-reliance on modern communication systems, the ministry added.