BAE SYSTEMS completes delivery of air-portable Ptarmigan area communication system
20 Jun 2002
BAE Systems C4ISR has completed the task from the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence to develop and install improved generators and air-conditioning units for the Ptarmigan Secondary Access Node-Air Portable system - SAN(AP) - to enhance power and climatic control performance.
Following the recent delivery of the last upgraded installations to the user community, all enhanced SAN(AP) vehicles are now back in service - in the United Kingdom and in Germany.
The whole modification programme was completed within five months of receipt of order by the Christchurch-based C4ISR Communications & Defence Infrastructure team, supported by BAE Systems' partners in this programme - Dytecna, Fischer Panda and Cool Tec.
The Ptarmigan SAN(AP) was originally designed and delivered to the Ministry of Defence in 1998 under an Urgent Operational Requirement to provide rapidly deployed forces with access to area and satellite communications. The programme repackaged the conventional Ptarmigan Secondary Access Switch and Radio Relay sub-systems into separate air-portable variants, each mounted on Pinzgauer 6x6 wheeled vehicles which are deployed in pairs as the SAN(AP).
The system has seen operational service with the British Army in a number of overseas theatres and with the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.
Ptarmigan was the world's first deployed military digital area communications system. It incorporated many of the advanced data packaging and switching technologies now mirrored in the world of civil telecommunications. The system has supported British forces in many major campaigns and has been updated to reflect changing military requirements, in particular those of expeditionary warfare, peacekeeping roles and the emerging digitised battlespace.
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