19-12-2004, 03:43 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Long Ashton, Bristol
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Army and MoD in crisis talks over 'faulty' £2bn radio system
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/pol...p?story=594554
Quote:
A £2bn radio system may not be available for troops in Iraq because British trials have found serious faults with it.
The Army and Ministry of Defence are now locked in crisis talks over the controversial - and incomplete - radio and communications system, Bowman. The system is due to be deployed when the 12th Mechanised Infantry Brigade takes over in the Basra sector for six months from March.
There have been a range of complaints over the Bowman: the headsets don't fit over standard helmets; the main kit is so bulky it needs a trailer to pull it; while fitting it in tanks has proved awkward. Soldiers are so despairing they now joke that Bowman stands for "Better Off With Map And Nokia".
12 Mec Brigade was the first major unit to be kitted with the £2.2bn radio system, built by General Dynamics. This autumn, the brigade carried out an exercise on Salisbury Plain in which the Bowman personal radios worked, but little of the data-processing side did.
The MoD held talks last week to decide whether it should risk sending the brigade to Basra on the basis that half a communications system is better than none.
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