Battlespace Communications System

The Australian Army has commissioned more than 1,000 digital radios in the first phase of a multi-billion dollar effort to phase out its ageing, analogue communications system.

Up to $3.5 billion would be spent on the army's Battlespace Communications System project by 2016, under the 2009/2019 Defence Capability Plan.

Raytheon's digital devices came with ad-hoc wireless networking capabilities and were expected to provide faster, more secure, reliable and automatic relays.

Defence proposed to upgrade several IT systems in its 2009/2019 plan, including networking, identity management, and document handling.