Iridium, ITT contracted for radio tech

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BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy has contracted Iridium Communications Inc. and ITT Corp. to deliver handheld radio communication technologies.

U.S. company Iridium and ITT were selected to received the contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division. Under the $9.7 million deal, ITT will deliver its Distributed Tactical Communications Systems-Radio Only transceivers equipped to use the Iridium satellite network.

Officials say the order is for 1,450 tactical satellite communication devices that will be sent to support ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The initial production contract to ITT validates Defense Department's commitment to deploying this important tactical communication capability to warfighters in the field as quickly as possible," John Campbell, Iridium executive vice president for government programs, said in a statement.

"DTCS fulfills an immediate mission-critical requirement for beyond-line-of-sight and over-the-horizon communications in mountainous terrain. The DTCS-Radio Only handsets are lightweight, easy to use, require no deployed infrastructure, and represent a real breakthrough in handheld mobile satellite communications."