ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD – The U.S. Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) recently awarded a contract to Mastodon Design LLC in the amount of $99,991,845 for the procurement, training, and fielding of the Terrestrial Layer System – Brigade Combat Team (TLS BCT) Manpack system.

“The efforts to demonstrate, test, and rapidly procure a COTS-based product significantly accelerated the procurement timeline and will result in early capability to the field starting this year. The TLS BCT Manpack is a mature, well-adopted system that will make a significant contribution to winning the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) fight,” said Ken Strayer, Project Manager Electronic Warfare and Cyber (PM EW&C). After successful prototyping and operational demonstration with Soldier touch points, the TLS BCT Manpack program received approval to transition into Middle Tier Acquisition (MTA) Rapid Fielding with a first unit issued planned in 2024.

The TLS BCT Manpack system is a tailorable, modular, terrestrial capability that allows the integration of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Electromagnetic Warfare (EW) collection, processing, exploitation, reporting, and effects capabilities within the SIGINT Collection Team (SCT) and Electromagnetic Warfare Team (EWT) elements. It provides the Brigade Combat Team (BCT) Commander a tactical advantage with a robust state-of-the-art mobile EW capability for Multi-Domain Operations (MDO). The fully configurable system can conduct radio frequency (RF) surveying, signals collection and direction-finding operations, electromagnetic attack and force protection operations, and EMS visualization and scanning/surveying operations.