General Dynamics Mission Systems will be supplying more than 140 CM-300/350 V2 Air Traffic Control (ATC) radios to the US Air Force in Europe. The new radios will replace the current ATC radios operating at U.S. Air Force bases in European (USAFE) locations.
The General Dynamics-built radios leverage the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) NEXCOM Segment II radio design with Internet Protocol (IP)-based networking for remote management and maintenance across ATC networks. Sharp, clear voice communication among pilots and air traffic controllers comes from its Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) operation. The contract is valued at $23 million over five years.
The CM-300/350 V2 software-defined radios operate in ground-to-air communication systems across the United States National Airspace (NAS) and meet frequency spacing requirements needed for flying in Europe. The radios also comply with the international Air Traffic Management (ATM) VoIP standard, and will support NAS ATM ground-infrastructure modernization efforts.
The reliability of the radios is a significant factor in maintaining air traffic safety across the NAS. Radio performance is measured using Mean-Time-Between-Failure (MTBF), the time that elapses between radio faults. The MTBF for the General Dynamics ATC radios is more than 428,000 hours, almost 49 years of uninterrupted operation. Remote maintenance and monitoring of CM-300/350 V2 radios are performed from various locations across air-to-ground communications networks, contributing to the radios' high reliability.
General Dynamics began delivering air traffic control radios to the FAA in 1992. Since then, the company has invested in technology upgrades including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) operation, increased radio operating efficiency, power savings, radio network resilience and improved voice clarity. The company also sells the URC-200 V2 emergency ATC radios for ground-to-air communications when primary ATC radio systems are unavailable.
