Bowman (communications system)
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Bowman is the name of the new tactical communications system being deployed by the British Army. Bowman C4I system consists of a range of HF radio, VHF radio and UHF radio sets to provide voice and data services to dismounted soldiers, individual vehicles and HQs.
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[edit] Procurement history
The concept of Bowman dates from a 1989 UK MoD General Staff Requirement (GSR) for a system to replace the ageing Clansman radio system. The GSR was subsequently modified to accommodate post Cold War scenarios. The procurement programme has had a long and chequered history, with a number of consortia involved in the development and bidding process. This process culminated in the failure in 2000 of the preferred bidder, Archer, to deliver the requirement within budget and time, and the resultant cessation of the contract by the UK MoD. The subsequent rebidding process for the contract was won by CDC Systems UK Ltd, now General Dynamics United Kingdom Ltd.
[edit] System overview
Bowman provides a tactical, secure voice and data communications system for joint operations across the, Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force. The complete contract involves more than 48,000 radios and more than 30,000 computers being installed in more than 30,000 platforms, together with the necessary training. The Bowman system is a fundamental part of the UK Digitisation process, as it will provide the carriers for the passage of data between the various software applications involved.
[edit] Equipment
Nominally the lowest deployed part of the Bowman communications pyramid is that provided by Marconi-Selenia Communications (then Selenia Communications, now SELEX Communications, Davies Communications Division), in the form of the H4855 Personal Role Radio (PRR) which is used among many others by infantry fire teams (at squad level and below). PRR is only hazily connected with the Bowman programme, in so far as it was hived off from the acquisition process in October 1999 for more rapid implementation, and the first of 45,000 units formally entered service in early 2002. Operating in the 2.4 GHz band, PRR is unencrypted and does not intercommunicate with the rest of the Bowman network, but is widely acclaimed as having revolutionised intra-squad communications and small-unit tactics.
Next up the communications hierarchy are the Bowman VHF radios, in the form of the UK Type 1(Pritchel)-encrypted platoon-level UK/PRC354 5W VHF portable transceiver (VPT) and the larger Bowman VHF ADR+ radio, an enhanced and improved 'Bowmanised' version of ITT's SINCGARS ASIP frequency-hopping radio with a 30-88 MHz frequency range. According to configuration, the ADR+ is variously designated UK/PRC355 (5 W manpack), UK/PRC356 (16 W ground-role manpack), UK/PRC357 (16 W vehicle clip-in radio), UK/PRC358 (16 W low-power vehicle radio), or UK/VRC359 (50 W vehicle-mounted high-power radio).
Under the terms of the baseline contract ITT Defence is delivering a total of some 26,000 ADR+ radios and 8,000 VPTs, complemented by 580 examples of the UK/ARC341 VHF aircraft role radio (a derivative of the company's SINCGARS AN/ARC-201D airborne transceiver) for helicopter and fixed-wing applications.
The Bowman HF frequency-hopping radio, 10,800 examples of which are being produced by Harris Corp., is based on the latter's RF5800H-MP Falcon II radio, otherwise known as the PRC-150(C) in its US Type 1-encrypted form. The Bowman version is designated UK/PRC325 in its basic 20 W manpack form and UK/PRC326/7 in its 100 W high-power and co-sited vehicular configurations. The UK version of the PRC-150 has had the proprietary Harris Citadel encryption removed, having only the UK national (Pritchel) encryption and hopping waveform, while the Falcon II's original dual-band HF/VHF frequency range (1.6-60 MHz) has been narrowed to the 1.6-30 MHz (HF) band.
The top tier in the Bowman communications network is provided by the ITT UK/VRC340 HCDR, a 'Bowmanised' version of the company's Mercury NTDR (Near-Term Data Radio) wide-band networking transceiver. HCDR has a 225-450 MHz operating frequency range. It has wideband (4 MHz) and narrowband (500 kHz) modem configurations, with a user rate of 288 kbit/s on a 375 kbit/s channel and 576 kbit/s on a 750 kbit/s channel. Some 3,600 HCDRs are being supplied. HCDR provides a self managing mobile Internet Backbone using standard RFC interfaces and routing protocols.
Provision of the associated User Data Terminals (UDTs) for vehicular and static use has been contracted to DRS, which produces the Bowman Management Data Terminal (BMDT) for network management, the Vehicle User Data Terminal (VUDT) with keyboard and touchscreen for use on the move, the Staff User Data Terminal (SUDT) for command cells, and the PBISA Processing Unit (PBPU) for Challenger 2 tanks. Since the start of the programme the capabilities of the UDTs (based on 700 MHz Pentium processors) have evolved, their original 256 MByte RAMs and 20 GByte drives having been superseded by 512 MByte RAMs and 40 GByte drives. The contractor for supply of Portable User Data Terminal (PUDTs), based on a 266 MHz Intel StrongARM processor, is L-3 Communications. Responsibility for supply of Bowman audio ancillaries, including the (full-stereo) staff-user headset, noise-cancelling general-purpose handset, and loudspeaker unit, has been vested in Davies Communications, which also provides the lightweight headset, respirator adaptor, and remote pressel switch associated with the PRR.
[edit] Controversy
When first rolled out, the Bowman system was said to contain many faults, to the extent which The Sun claimed that troops thought that Bowman stood for Better Off With Map And Nokia.
The programme came under scrutiny following an NAO accountability hearing for the governments procurement policy [1] and was generally considered to be a success considering the complexity and changing needs of the UK Armed Forces.
[edit] See also
The system is described on the UK MoD site here.
