MoD beefs up Afghanistan communications

Radwin radios will support Afghan operations

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has bought a new communication system for its Afghanistan operations.

Last week, the MoD purchased a new system known as Radwin 2000 from Israeli supplier Radwin.

The new system is designed to enhance the existing one, which had become increasingly overloaded and could not handle the amount of traffic and provide the level of service required.

We carefully evaluated different communications options before handing the final decision over to the Deployed Solutions staff in Afghanistan. Radwin’s systems meet our requirements, without additional modification or equipment," said Major Lee Hawkes of the MoD.

The BBC reported this week that the Radwin system will replace the existing £114m Cormorant system introduced in 2004 from supplier EADS, which handles voice and data communications between UK bases and headquarters in Afghanistan, because Cormorant was not up to the job.

But an MoD spokeswoman said: "Cormorant is a large communications network of which only a very small part went to Afghanistan - the radios. These are now being replaced by Radwin radios. While it is technically true to say that the Cormorant system will no longer be used in Afghanistan, most of it was never there in the first place."