NEW YORK – The United Kingdom Royal Marines, the commando and amphibious arm of the Royal Navy, needed handheld networking radios for the Future Commando Force program. They found their solution from Persistent Systems LLC in New York.
Persistent Systems will supply more than 1,000 of the company's MPU5 handheld networking radios to the Royal Marines for the Future Commando Force program.
The Android-loaded MPU5 runs the Wave Relay mobile ad-hoc networking (MANET) algorithm for peer-to-peer sharing of voice, video, text, GPS location, and sensor data without the use of vulnerable base stations or external communications infrastructure.
The Royal Marines Future Commando Force program seeks to enable Royal Marines warfighters to serve in two new littoral response groups, and the new radio equipment to reflect that role.
This gear includes new helmet cameras, hand-thrown unmanned aircraft and ground systems, rotary-wing drones for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), and resupply, and MPU5s to provide the MANET that connects the troops, equipment, and command.
The Royal Marines have used MPU5s during the Green Dagger exercise in California's the Mojave Desert, where Royal Marines were part of a U.S. Marine Corps force in multi-national wargames.
Last December, the Royal Marines likewise used MPU5s during Musandam Fort in Oman to test new communications equipment designed to create powerful, secure networks anywhere in the world, Royal Navy officials say.
Delivery, training, and customer support to the Royal Marines will come from Steatite Ltd. in Redditch, England, the prime contractor on this Royal Marines procurement. Deliveries will continue throughout 2023.
"The network is the foundation on which future technologies will be deployed," says Eve Shapiro, director of international business development at Persistent Systems. "Our MPU5's will transport data from sensors and unmanned systems enabling small agile commando teams to exert a disproportionally large effect on the battlefield."
For more information contact Persistent Systems online at www.persistentsystems.com, Steatite Ltd. at https://steatite-embedded.co.uk, or the Royal Marines at https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/our-organisation/the-fighting-arms/royal-marines.
