BANGALORE: Defence public sector undertaking (PSU) Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) will develop software defined radio sets for the armed forces which can work in any frequency.
The cost effective light radio sets will have lesser hardware components and be more of a software driven set that can perform the task of four radio sets put together, with very high frequency, ultra high frequency, high frequency and L-band.
“The software defined radio sets will replace the current set of four radios that are being used by our armed forces,” said IV Sarma, director (R&D) BEL.
Sarma said that the software defined radios will be of three versions - army, airborne and shipborne for the army, air force and navy respectively.
To start with, BEL will develop the army version by March next year, followed by airborne and shipborne versions.
“The army versions will again come in two types, one being the manpack radio and the other a handheld radio,” said Sarma.
He said that the software defined radio technology is available only with a few companies worldwide.
“There are three or four companies which have this technology worldwide. There is not much of a gap between them and us. We may just be about six months behind them,” he said.