The US Army has awarded CACI segment Mastodon Design a $99.9-million contract to deliver electronic warfare (EW) backpack suites for warfighters.
The deal orders the Terrestrial Layer System – Brigade Combat Team (TLS-BCT) Manpack which incorporates signals intelligence, electronic warfare, and cyber defense capabilities.
New York-based Mastodon will work on the procurement, training, and fielding of the backpack solutions until June 2029 in partnership with the Army Contracting Command at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
The first TLS-BCT is expected to be handed over later this year.
“The efforts to demonstrate, test, and rapidly procure a [commercial-off-the-shelf]-based product significantly accelerated the procurement timeline and will result in early capability to the field starting this year,’ US Army Electronic Warfare and Cyber Project Manager Ken Strayer stated.
“The TLS BCT Manpack is a mature, well-adopted system that will make a significant contribution to winning the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EMS) fight.”
Terrestrial Layer System – Brigade Combat Team Manpack
The TLS-BCT enables dismounted soldiers to localize, track, and disrupt enemy attacks in multi-domain operations, further boosting situational awareness across the battlefield. It is also tailored for force protection, navigation, and scanning/surveying applications.
Furthermore, the backpacks can coordinate data between teams and centers, sustaining collection, processing, exploitation, and reporting processes with command and control elements.
CACI completed the initial tests for the TLS-BCT in December 2023. Three months earlier, Mastodon secured $1.5 million to manufacture the system’s prototype.
A larger version of the TLS-BCT is already in use with the army, mounted on the Stryker armored fighting vehicle.
During the capability’s prototyping phase, it was projected that the US Army plans to acquire approximately 56 TLS-BCTs for vehicles and about 52 of its Manpack configuration in fiscal 2024.
Counter-Drone Backpacks for Canada
Earlier this year, CACI received a similar contract to supply man-packable anti-drone devices for the Canadian Armed Forces.
Comparable to the TLS-BCT Manpack, the “Skytracker” counter-unmanned aerial system suite leverages electronic signals to identify, detect, and neutralize threats.