Page 10 - Australian Defence Magazine August 2018

NEWS REVIEW
INDUSTRY UPDATE
Battlefield comms under Land 2072 2B reaches IOC
CAPT Martin Arundel operating the Currawong Communications System.
BOEING’S Currawong Battlespace Com- munications System has achieved Initial Operating Capability (IOC) on schedule and just four months after its Initial Mate- rial Release.
“The system improves the set-up time, ca- pacity, flexibility, and responsiveness of the ADF information exchange while reducing equipment size, weight and power during operations,” Boeing Defence Australia vice president and MD Darren Edwards said.
More than 700 communications spe- cialists have now been trained to use the system, with ongoing support provided by Boeing Field Service Representatives as part of the support contract.
Lieutenant Colonel Les Juckel Com- manding Officer 7th Combat Signal Regi- ment said IOC was achieved during the recent Exercise Carbon Diamond with ‘overwhelming success’.
“The Integrated - Battlefield Telecom- munications Network (I-BTN) was un- questionably superior to previous Defence networks in terms of ease of configuration, situational awareness for the operators, and network performance,” LTCOL Juckel said. “Overall the operation of the network was beyond the expectations of the operators and left them awaiting future material and software releases for further capabilities.”
Multiple defence units used the Curra- wong I-BTN during Army’s largest annual exercise, Exercise Hamel 2018, in Shoalwa- ter Bay. Under release 1, Land 2072 Phase 2B delivered the core communication net- work software and hardware, and 39 de- ployable communication nodes to the ADF to date.
BOEING
10 | August 2018 | www.australiandefence.com.au