By Calvin Biesecker
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) branch yesterday announced 14 lead organizations for an upcoming pilot project that will involve the use of new multi-band radios developed by France’s Thales for the public safety market.
Thales received a $6.3 million contract from S&T in March 2008 for further development and testing of the company’s Liberty multi-band land mobile radios. The software defined radios are designed for government agencies and first responders, allowing different agencies and personnel such as command centers, police officers and firefighters, to operate with one radio rather than several or more when during responses requiring a multiple agency response.
Currently, radios used by first responders are designed to operate within a specific frequency band, with no one radio able to tune to channels within every public safety frequency band. Hence, there is the need for different response agencies at the federal, state, local and tribal levels to sometimes carry multiple radios.
DHS S&T’s Command, Control and Interoperability Division launched the Multi-Band Radio project to develop a portable radio prototype that operates on all public safety radio bands.
The Liberty radios were introduced early in 2008 and are made in the United States. In April of 2009, the Federal Communications Commission certified the radios.
The organizations selected for the pilot testing, which begins this fall and will last at least one month, are the 2010 Olympic Security Committee in Blaine, Wash., and Vancouver, Canada, Amtrak, Boise, Idaho, Fire Dept., Canadian Interoperability Technology Interest Group, Customs and Border Protection in Detroit, Mich., the Federal Emergency Management Administration, Hawaii State Civil Defense, Interagency Communication Interoperability System in Los Angeles, Michigan Emergency Medical Services, Murray State Univ. in Kentucky, Phoenix, Ariz., Police Dept. and the Arizona Dept. of Emergency Management Greater Phoenix and Yuma County, Texas National Guard, U.S. Marshals Service, and the Washington, D.C., Metro Area Transit Authority Transit Police.
Earlier this year, Thales conducted short-term demonstrations of its Liberty radios at various events, including the presidential inauguration and the Academy Awards. Prior to that, the radios went through a series of laboratory evaluations.
S&T said that in the upcoming tests the radios will be used by responders mainly in a command and control role or involved in special operations with multiple entities. The organizations that will do the pilot testing sere selected to represent a broad range of communication environments.
Results and lessons learned from the testing are expected to be published early next year on the DHS S&T http://www.safecomprogram.gov web site.
In addition to Thales, Harris Corp., [HRS] has also entered the public safety market for software defined, multi-band land mobile radios with the introduction last year of the Unity family of radios.