Lockheed Martin, Boeing to Continue Development of Terrestrial Layer System for U.S. Army’s Tactical Vehicles

The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin and Boeing each $9.6 million to continue development of Terrestrial Layer System (TLS), which will provide the service with critical situational awareness capabilities.

The contract was awarded by the Army through the Consortium Management Group (CMG)/ Consortium for Command, Control and Communications in Cyberspace (C5). This follows a 16-month prototyping period that involved Lockheed and Boeing subsidiary Digital Receiver Technology. During those months, each company was charged with developing prototypes and working with soldiers. The Army will pick one solution to move forward.

Designed for tactical vehicles, TLS will deliver an integrated suite of signals intelligence (SIGINT), electronic warfare, and cyberspace operations capabilities to enable the Joint All Domain Operational (JADO) capable force.

The Terrestrial Layer System-Brigade Combat Team (TLS-BCT) will be mounted on a Stryker vehicle. When fielded, TLS will be assigned to the Multi-functional Platoon and the EW Platoon organic to the Military Intelligence (MI) Company (MICO) in the BCTs.

The Army asked for $39.7 million in the most recent budget request for the TLS-BCT program from research and development funds. The first unit is to receive the system in fiscal 2022.