back to article Getting meshy: BAE scores £89m deal with MoD to build new battlefield network

The UK military is set to get a new tactical wide-area network from BAE Systems just in time for the decommissioning of the old one from BAE Systems, for which BAE Systems will bank £89 million ($113 million) for its efforts.  Details regarding the new battlefield network, dubbed "Trinity," are scarce from both the Ministry of …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "BAE and its partners [..] have yet to design the new system"

    And the MoD thinks it is going to have its new toy in 2026 ?

    Without overcharges ?

    What optimism.

    I think I'll be reading about this project's delivery date before, and after, 2026.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. blackcat Silver badge

      Re: "BAE and its partners [..] have yet to design the new system"

      Having worked with BAE in the past and on such projects as IVAS I would say 2036 is more realistic.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "BAE and its partners [..] have yet to design the new system"

      This should hopefully give the MoD some time to work out its requirements before it gets too late / expensive, something they are routinely bad at.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: "BAE and its partners [..] have yet to design the new system"

        The presumably much simpler task of building an emergency services network in a friendly country (and Scotland) with nobody shooting at you (and S London) is 20years late and £NaN over budget

  2. john.jones.name

    no way unless repackaging

    unless they are repackaging existing kit there is no way 89M pays for custom radios

    all you can do is essentially recenter the frequency around Military frequency allowances and even then 89M wont pay for all the actual engineering to be done...

    all they will end up with is supply chain full of china/APAC based vendors rebadged with no clue that the kit is being used for military use...

    intresting would be the split in fee's between BAE to Kellogg since those "consultants" don't have any RF experience they just talk a good game

    1. blackcat Silver badge

      Re: no way unless repackaging

      They are using commercial bands or just above/below as this allows them to use COTS or slightly re-tuned COTS equipment.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: no way unless repackaging

      I read this as 89M for the network design, actually building & equipping it will be an additional cost.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: no way unless repackaging

        They just have to remove some armour from Nokia 3110s and paint them green

  3. hammarbtyp

    A network by another name would be as lucrative

    "a series of nodes that maintain operational resilience by being able to take over for other nodes that are damaged or destroyed"

    and we will call it Transitional Combat Protocol ... thats 89 mill thanks

    1. Yet Another Hierachial Anonynmous Coward

      Re: A network by another name would be as lucrative

      My preference would be Automatic Routing Protocol for Army. It could be the start of great things.

      Shall we share the £89 mil ?

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: A network by another name would be as lucrative

        IPoAC has been proven in combat for 150years

        *Except for the unfortunate Speckled Jim incident

  4. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    The Troubles Playbook Revisited ..... hopefully now with lessons learned worthy of win wins

    "Trinity is a land based, tactical wide area network and in that sense is not to [sic] dissimilar to a space based wide area network," Mark Todd, BAE Systems Digital Intelligence head of products told The Register.

    So in essence, whenever aspiring to have a global reach, not at all dissimilar to those paramilitary overground undertakings of Universal Virtual Force with Immaculately Resourceful Assets which one has to assume will be targeting them as hostile frenemies with their irregular and unconventional volunteer armies.

    It is not gonna be easy, nor cheap, ensuring that little lot doesn't blow everything up at most every future turn.

  5. xyz Silver badge

    Golden...

    A pile of TPlink stuff off Amazon, a bit of cammo wrap and they'll still come in late and overbudget.

  6. Tron Silver badge

    We need to improve the value for money here.

    We need to go to war.

    Spending all this money and then never using it for a war is a complete waste.The more wars you have, the more cost effective the tech is. You can do it by dead bodies or countries invaded. Maybe not countries invaded. 200 years later they will be demanding 12x your GDP in compensation.

    I mean, we don't even know that it works. They might have shipped duff gear and hoped for the best. We should at least have one war to make sure it worked, before giving them another contract.

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: We need to improve the value for money here.

      We need to go to war. .... Spending all this money and then never using it for a war is a complete waste. ..... Tron

      Only the perversely corrupt and bereft of future advantageous creative benevolent intellectual property support warmongers relying on the ignorance of the masses to not notice and remedy their intelligence deficit with the honest truth about the fake news machine supplying false trails and tall tales that enrich a self chosen very few to the detriment of everyone and everything else.

      The following few short sentences originating here and entitled ........WHY WOULD THEY WANT TO SOLVE IT? .... tell IT and AI and every man and his dog like it really is, and clearly identifies who and what is to blame and shame and ripe ready for current extinction from future events ‽ ‽

      The entire world is nothing but a racket. Just call it a war and the funding is never ending. Why would any politician or general ever want peace? Their funding would stop. Why would Big Pharma and their media co-conspirators ever want to cure cancer or any disease created by other mega-corporations? Their riches would evaporate.

      The war on terror must never be won, because the Department of Homeland Security and all the parasites that live off that bloated cow need your money. Joe Rogan points out the same narrative when it comes to homelessness. Bureaucrats and departments in all these Democrat shitholes don’t want to solve the homelessness problem. They would be out of jobs. Everything is a racket.

    2. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

      Re: We need to improve the value for money here.

      I mean, we don't even know that it works

      Why do you think we're so keen to give stuff to the Ukrainians for field testing against the Russians?

  7. ShortLegs

    So no one picked up on the final comments

    The seemingly contradictory "...but Todd did tell us that BAE would keep delivering Falcon while Trinity development continued."

    Nor

    "Trinity is designed... as an extension to Falcon," Todd said."

    Which implies it requires Falcon if it is an extension. So maybe just a shift to a different IP routing protocol, or an IP4 to IP6 upgrade.

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