Chemring Australia has recently signed a contract with the Joint Systems Division of CASG for the provision of EW Manpack Systems.
The contract, valued at up to $18m, will see Army’s current inventory of Manpack Electronic Surveillance systems replaced by Chemring’s ‘Resolve 3’ system by March 2018 under Project Land 500 Phase 1.
Resolve 3 is the latest iteration of the highly successful, combat-proven, Resolve Electronic Surveillance system, designed and produced by UK-based Chemring Technology Solutions (CTS). On show at the recent Land Forces exhibition, Resolve 3 received significant interest from the Army’s user community according to Chemring, with the service keen to get the latest technology into the hands of its soldiers.
In 2013 the company received a Priority Industry Capability Innovation Program Grant that enabled it to establish a local capability to develop and support its range of military electronics systems in Australia.
“Resolve 3 represents the latest in man-portable Electronic Surveillance capability and is a quantum leap over the Army’s current in-service systems," Chemring Australia managing director Mark Hender said.
"Having a local capability to support Resolve will provide the Army with an enhanced capability and support service, and will enable Australia to directly contribute to the future direction that Chemring takes with the Resolve product family, rather than relying on overseas developments.”
According to the CTS website, the single Resolve EW Manpack can be used in isolation to provide both full spectrum surveillance and Direction Finding (DF) capabilities. When networked with other Resolve systems it is then possible to position fix targets using Angle of Arrival (AOA) techniques.
The Manpack system can be deployed in one of three configurations – On-the-March, On-the-Move, and Static Deployment.
In the On-the-March configuration, RESOLVE provides the dismounted operator with an immediate threat warning, direction finding and position fix capability. Its lightweight design allows it to be carried by a single operator and the PDA unit allows communications monitoring in real-time while on the march. The On-the-March configuration can network with any other Resolve systems to provide geolocation.
Chemring Australia and CTS will progressively roll-out the systems along with initial training for Army’s EW operators.
The company will deliver Army’s Resolve 3 systems from its facility located in Mulgrave, Victoria.