The AN/PRC-148 Multiband Inter/Intra Team Radio (MBITR) is the most widely fielded handheld multiband, tactical

software-defined radio Software-defined radio (SDR) is a radio communication system where components that conventionally have been implemented in analog hardware (e.g. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/ demodulators, detectors, etc.) are instead implemented ...

, used by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

forces around the world. The radio is built by

Thales Communications Thales Defense & Security, Inc. (formerly Thales Communications Inc.) is a subsidiary of the Thales Group, is a leading manufacturer of tactical communications equipment, including the AN/PRC-148 MBITR and JEM (JTRS Enhanced Module), currently ...

, a subsidiary of the France-based

Thales Group Thales S.A., Trade name, trading as Thales Group (), is a French multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence industry, defence corporation specializing in electronics. It designs, develops and manufactures a wide variety of aer ...

. The MBITR was developed by the

United States Special Operations Command The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM or SOCOM) is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various special operations component commands of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force of the United States A ...

(USSOCOM) and Thales Communications in the 1990s and went into production in 1994, to address the need for a secure multiband handheld radio.Thales PRC-148 JEM: The First Tactically Deployed JTRS Radio?
Defense Industry Daily It has been more widely deployed with

Stryker The Stryker is a family of Eight-wheel drive, eight-wheeled armored fighting vehicles derived from the Canadian LAV III. Stryker vehicles are produced by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C) for the United States Army in a plant in L ...

Combat Teams and with troops deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan. As of August 2007, 100,000 MBITRs have been fielded, over 31,000 of which are in use by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

. In accordance with the

Joint Electronics Type Designation System The Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), which was previously known as the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System (AN System. JAN) and the Joint Communications-Electronics Nomenclature System, is a method developed by the U.S. War Depa ...

(JETDS), the "''AN/PRC-148''" designation represents the 148th design of an Army-Navy electronic device for portable two-way communications radio. The JETDS system also now is used to name all

Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

electronic systems.

Variants

AN/PRC-148 JEM (JTRS Enhanced MBITR)

The standard AN/PRC-148 MBITR can be seamlessly upgraded to the AN/PRC-148 V3/V4 JEM, which is the first radio to be

Joint Tactical Radio System The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) aimed to replace existing radios in the American military with a single set of software-defined radios that could have new frequencies and modes (“waveforms”) added via upload, instead of requiring mu ...

(JTRS)

Software Communications Architecture The Software Communications Architecture (SCA) is an open architecture Open architecture is a type of computer architecture or software architecture intended to make adding, upgrading, and swapping components with other computers easy. For exa ...

2.2 compliant. The radio is upgraded by replacing the front panel and

COMSEC Communications security is the discipline of preventing unauthorized interceptors from accessing telecommunications in an intelligible form, while still delivering content to the intended recipients. In the North Atlantic Treaty Organization c ...

(COMmunications SECurity) control hardware assemblies. The radio is in production and has been fielded with

USSOCOM The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM or SOCOM) is the unified combatant command charged with overseeing the various special operations component commands of the United States Army Special Operations Command, Army, United Stat ...

AN/PRC-6809 MBITR Clear

The AN/PRC-6809 MBITR Clear is a variant of the MBITR, made available without encryption. While the PRC-148 includes US Type 1 capabilities in all versions, the PRC-6809 uses Level III Data Encryption Standard, making it available to police, firefighters, and militaries unable to obtain

International Traffic in Arms Regulations International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) is a set of U.S. Department of State regulations that control the export of defense and military technologies to safeguard national security and further its foreign policy objectives. Overvi ...

(ITAR) approval.

Features

* Seamless upgrade to AN/PRC-148 JEM (

JTRS The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) aimed to replace existing radios in the American military with a single set of software-defined radios that could have new frequencies and modes (“waveforms”) added via upload, instead of requiring mult ...

Enhanced MBITR) * AM/ FM * Voice/Data * HAVEQUICK I/II,

SINCGARS Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) is a VHF combat network radio (CNR) used by U.S. and allied military forces. In the CNR network, the SINCGARS’ primary role is voice transmission between surface and airborne comman ...

ESIP single channel and frequency hopping,

ANDVT The Advanced Narrowband Digital Voice Terminal (ANDVT) is a secure voice terminal for low bandwidth secure voice communications throughout the U.S. Department of Defense. Devices in the ANDVT family include the AN/USC-43 Tactical Terminal (TACTER ...

* Analog narrowband capable (12.5 kHz) * 2 and 20 meter immersible variants *

CTCSS In telecommunications, Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System or CTCSS is one type of in-band signaling that is used to reduce the annoyance of listening to other users on a shared two-way radio communication channel. It is sometimes referred to ...

tones * Retransmission between handheld radios (with special purpose filters and cable) * JITC tested

Interoperability

The MBITR can communicate with the following devices: *AN/PRC-68 * AN/PRC-117F *

AN/PRC-77 The AN/PRC-77 Portable Transceiver, also known as AN/PRC 77 Radio Set, is a man-pack, portable VHF FM combat-net radio transceiver manufactured by Associated IndustriesAN/PRC-113 *AN/PRC-137 *AN/PRC-139 *

AN/PRC-152 The AN/PRC-152 Multiband Handheld Radio, is a portable, compact, tactical software-defined combat-net radio manufactured by Harris Corporation. It is compliant without waivers to the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Software Communications Arch ...

* AN/PRC-119 * AN/VRC-12 * AN/PSC-5 *

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

LST-5B/C *Motorola MX300 Series * Motorola Saber *Motorola XTS 3000 *Motorola XTS 5000

Replacement

While the JEM has passed government certification, it is an evolutionary platform, and not fully compatible with all specifications of JTRS. The fully compatible system is the JTRS HMS, (Handheld, Manpack and Small form-fit) being developed by

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

, Thales Communications,

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

, and

Rockwell Collins Rockwell Collins, Inc. was a multinational corporation headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, providing avionics and information technology systems and services to government agencies and aircraft manufacturers. It was formed when the Collins Radi ...

are all prime subcontractors. The HMS is expected to be an integral part in the US Army's

Future Combat Systems Future Combat Systems (FCS) was the United States Army's principal modernization program from 2003 to early 2009. Formally launched in 2003, FCS was envisioned to create new brigades equipped with new manned and unmanned vehicles linked by an unpr ...

program.

Competition

The MBITR's primary competition comes from

Harris Corporation Harris Corporation was an American technology company, defense contractor, and information technology service (economics), services provider that produced wireless equipment, tactical radios, electronic systems, night vision device, night visi ...

software defined radio, which has also received SCA and

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

certification.

Accessories

* RCU Remote Control Unit with GPS * H2OPS * ViaSat Data Controller (VDC-600, VDC-800, or VDC-850) * Melanie H_N * Vehicle Adapter

ViaSat Data Controller (VDC-600, VDC-800, or VDC-850)

The ViaSat Data Controller (VDC-600, VDC-800, or VDC-850) acts as a Networking Interface Card (NIC), enabling seamless integration of IP-based applications into a point-to-point RF network. The device is built by

Viasat Viasat may refer to: *Viasat (American company) (founded 1986) ** Viasat hack, a cyberattack on the Viasat KA-SAT network that happened in February 2022 *Viasat (Nordic television service) Viasat is a direct broadcast satellite, satellite and pa ...

Thales Melanie H_N

MELANIE allows collecting

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

data from user nodes (also in

- Advanced Narrowband Digital Voice Terminal radio mode) and to provide a robust military interface to connect MBITR to

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

s (or Android tablets). MELANIE is connected to an external connector of MBITR and forwards data/audio connection for C4OPS and for RCU. Data connection by

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

. Typical Blue Force Tracking (BFT) configuration of a MELANIE network consists of at least a Headquarter station plus user nodes. MELANIE Handheld is able to send its own position over the VHF or SAT network while exchanging data (Chat, File transfer, Video, TR@CER, etc.). In transparent mode it has a throughput of 13.5 kbit/s with FEC. The device is built by Thales Italia Chieti Site, a subsidiary of the Thales Group.

Thales Vehicle Adapter

The compact, rugged Vehicle Adapters and Vehicle Adapter Amplifiers for the combat-proven AN/PRC-148 family of multiband inter/intra team radios expand critical communication capabilities and open up a broad range of secure and anti-jamming voice and data applications. Easily mounted in air, land, or sea vehicles, they provide power amplification for range extension while recharging the installed AN/PRC-148 radios.

External links

''Thales Communications, Inc.'' - Tactical Communications Products

References

{{Thales Group Military radio systems of the United States Military electronics of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1990s