Thales announced Oct. 29 two awards for its AN/PRC-148 JTRS handheld radio from the Joint Program Executive Office Joint Tactical Radio System (JPEO JTRS) under the Consolidated, Interim, Single-channel, Handheld Radio (CISCHR) contract.

The delivery orders will field almost 40,000 AN/PRC-148 JTRS Enhanced MBITRs (JEMs), as well as ancillaries, with an aggregate total contract value exceeding $128 million. The most recent JPEO award was on behalf of the Army and was the first delivery order for the service under the CISCHR contract.

“The AN/PRC-148 JEM provides warfighters with the proven outstanding performance and features of the MBITR they have come to expect, combined with the advanced capabilities and upgrade potential of the JTRS Program,” Walt Hepker, vice president of business development for Thales Communications, said in a statement. “The AN/PRC-148 radio continues to be the standard dismounted Type 1 portable radio for the U.S. Army.”

Thales’ AN/PRC-148 JEM (JTRS Enhanced Multiband Inter/Intra Team Radio) has a software communications architecture-compliant platform that hosts all of today’s key waveforms and ensures compatibility with the critical JTRS waveforms of the future.

Further, the radio’s programmable cryptography meets the requirements of the National Security Agency’s crypto modernization program and is certified to protect the confidentiality of voice and data up through the Top Secret level.

The only JTRS handheld radio to be designed, developed, and manufactured under a Defense Department program of record, the AN/PRC-148 JEM has been government tested, evaluated, and validated. The AN/PRC-148, and ancillary equipment such as the dual radio AN/VRC-111 Vehicle Adapter Amplifier, is available to all services under JTRS CISCHR.

The AN/PRC-148 JEM is an evolution of the battle-proven AN/PRC-148 Multiband Inter/Intra Team Radio, or MBITR.