General Dynamics Wants Army to Expedite Tactical Network Deployment

General Dynamics’ mission systems business has developed a system to help the U.S. Army speed up its timeline for the deployment of its tactical network to armored units amid competition with countries such as Russia and China, C4ISRNET reported Tuesday.

“The real concern is if the balloon goes up tomorrow with Russia or China, it is our heavy formations that are actually going to be fighting the fight, not necessarily the light guys. Are we really waiting until 2023 in order to field that capability to our most mobile and our most lethal force?” Scott Dunderdale, vice president of Army tactical network programs at General Dynamics Mission Systems, told the publication Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference.

The service branch “actually agreed with us,” he added.

The company developed the Rugged Armored Vehicle Network platform, which is in the prototype phase and is designed to provide beyond-line-of-sight communications, increased bandwidth and LTE connectivity to allow armored forces to access applications on the battlefield.

“We have committed to the Army that we will be ready to start building and fielding these in March/April time frame next year,” Dunderdale said. “So if we are lucky enough to get the funding, we will be ready to go. If we’re not, well then we’ll put it on the back burner.”

GDMS also lobbied Congress to allocate more funds to expedite the tactical network deployment schedule.