At least this is what is claimed by Security Talks, in its issue titled “State-of-the-art radios for the Ukrainian military”.
L3Harris was selected in 2020 to be major supplier of encrypted radios to Ukrainian armed services, Security Talks reported.
Read more: Ukraine Ordered A First Batch Of Neptune Anti-Ship Missile Systems
Now that L3Harris radios have been officially adopted as core radio systems in Ukrainian military service, these radios are being prepared for installation into Army combat vehicles. Here the talk is about UHF systems deployed at the tactical edge.
In the Ukrainian Armed Forces, modern narrow-band, extended-range HF radios for brigade-to-battalion and higher echelons are no longer in shortage after the Defense Ministry had funded and bought sufficient inventories over the previous years.
In Ukraine’s military, the intention is to use Turkish-produced radios from Aselsan for Territorial Defense units, while L3Harris systems would equip almost all active in-service units in the field. Exceptions may be individual units of Air Force (especially combat aircraft units) that require capabilities that are more mission-specific.
The U.S. Government has committed to catalyze the modernization of Ukraine’s armed services with U.S.-produced radios. According to preliminary projections for 2021 to 2025, the U.S. Foreign Military Funding (FMF) program budgets would fund $300 million worth of procurement of L3Harris radios for the Ukrainian military over said period. This would come as complement to the $300 million worth of earlier shipments of L3Harris radios, enabled through funding from the FMF program budgets over the years since the 2014 onset of Russia’s military aggression in eastern Ukraine.
However, despite ongoing procurements and past and future assistance coming from the U.S., Ukraine’s military is still 80 percent below establishment in this type of radio equipment.
Read more: Ukraine, Turkey sign contracts for military goods
