Northrop Grumman to Supply Ground-to-Air Radios to Denmark’s NAVIAIR as Part of Country-wide Upgrade

Northrop Grumman Corporation’s U.K.-based air traffic management (ATM) subsidiary, Park Air Systems, has been awarded a contract by NAVIAIR, the Danish air navigation service provider, to replace the existing ground-to-air communication equipment for Denmark’s airports and en-route operations.

The replacement will introduce the new Park Air T6 radio from the Sapphire range, with 8.33 kHz voice channel spacing and VoIP capability.  In addition to the radios, the procurement includes the MARC Remote Control and Monitoring System for maintenance, and training at Park Air’s dedicated Training Academy in the U.K.

“We will be taking delivery of the new T6 radios in two batches, one in late 2017 and the next in the first quarter of 2018,” said Tejpal Singh Binning from NAVIAIR. “The radios will be at the centre of our national system upgrade, giving us a communications network ready for the next decade and beyond.”

“In this tender, there was heavy emphasis on lifecycle costs and maintainability for the ATM equipment,” said Danny Milligan, managing director, Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems. “We were able to produce numbers which demonstrated the reduced operating costs during the lifecycle of the T6 radio and are very happy to continue our excellent, longstanding relationship with NAVIAIR.”

The T6 is the first air traffic control radio designed specifically to work as part of a secure digital network. It is fully compliant with all the latest VoIP protocols (ED137 A/B/C, G711/G729 and IPv4/IPv6), can support up to 10 simultaneous VoIP sessions and up to four IP recorders. Whilst maintaining full backwards compatibility, it has unrivalled connectivity, scalability and security for future voice and data communication.

The contract with NAVIAIR also includes the delivery of MARC Server, a configurable browser-based control and monitoring system allowing management of all Sapphire assets from remote desktops or tablets.

The T6 radios provide excellent colocation performance which allows the equipment to be used in busy RF environments with the minimum amount of filtering accessories, while still exceeding industry standard range and signal strength requirements. The radios meet strict environmental demands with lower power consumption than other units on the market and lower end-of-life disposal costs through the elimination of hazardous material.

NAVIAIR employees will attend Sapphire training courses at the Park Air Academy near Peterborough in the U.K. Training will cover operations and maintenance, and will be delivered as a combination of classroom-based sessions and hands-on practical work.