BlackTree secures £46 million to bring Trellisware radios to British Army

The British Army has struggled with its tactical radios for many years. This struggle became acute as it tried to network sensors and shooters together in real time under Project Asgard. Now a new contract with BlackTree could create a route for widespread off-the-shelf procurement to rapidly improve the British Army’s radios.

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on February 11, 2026. 

BLUF: 

• A brigade within the British Army is set to receive new radios under an £86 million contract placed with BlackTree, the UK reseller for TrellisWare. 
• The new system is expected to reduce the time taken between seeing and shooting a target. 

BlackTree has been awarded a contract to provide tactical radios and tablets to the British Army under a contract with a ceiling value of £86 million ($117/€98 million), according to a February 8 MoD press release. The initial contract is valued at £46 million (approx $63/52 million) and will include new radios, headsets, tablets, and batteries by 2027.

It is understood that the first deliveries will equip the UK’s 4th Light Brigade and that the procurement was carried out under Project EXPANSE. The systems, which are provided by US company TrellisWare, are expected to rapidly reduce “the time it takes for soldiers to receive reconnaissance and intelligence data, boosting lethality and reducing friendly fire incidents,” according to the MoD. 

“They will provide precise information on surroundings and intelligence, meaning increased clarity on who are enemies and who are comrades,” the press release adds. The radios are said to be AI-ready and support communication via voice or “visual data,” which presumably means graphical overlays on a map.

BlackTree and Project ASGARD

Project ASGARD was a British Army initiative to develop kill webs that could rapidly take reconnaissance and turn that into engagements. The hope is that being able to prosecute targets at a faster rate will increase lethality, deterrence, and combat success. 

• Project ASGARD; the British Army’s path to doubling lethality – Calibre Defence 
• Royal Marines reach 2,000 MPU5 radios in service amidst UK comms woes – Calibre Defence 
• https://www.calibredefence.co.uk/no-comms-no-bombs-nokia-and-lmt-partner-for-5g-in-latvia/ 

However, there was a problem, and that was the British Army’s legacy radio system, BOWMAN. Designed in the 1990s and introduced in the early 2000s, BOWMAN lacked the bandwidth and functionality to support the kind of data transfer that ASGARD needed. This led to an interim procurement for elements of the 4th Light Brigade from BlackTree so that ASGARD could actually happen. 

The TrellisWare radios enabled multiple high bandwidth connections to take place, which is essential for sharing large volumes of information in real time. The Army is following in the footsteps of the Royal Marines, after they procured MPU5 radios from Persistent systems. The Marines now have 2,000 MPU5 radio sets in service, after official selection in 2023. That is a pretty rapid turn around of capability for the British armed forces in peacetime. 

Tech profile: TrellisWare radios

The TW-950 TSM Shadow is TrellisWare’s signature handheld radio, designed to provide high-speed tactical networking in the most challenging radio frequency environments. The suite is powered by the TSM waveform, a mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) technology that utilises TrellisWare’s patented Barrage Relay technology. 

This waveform is particularly advantageous for militaries because it eliminates the need for complex routing protocols, allowing the network to be exceptionally scalable. Theoretically it can support over 800 nodes in a single RF channel, while remaining self-forming and self-healing. For the dismounted soldier, this translates to reliable, simultaneous delivery of primary voice talk groups, high-definition video streaming, and rapid position location information (PLI) without the risk of network congestion or failure when moving through urban or subterranean terrain.

Calibre comment: When capability trumps sovereignty

Sovereign production is a core requirement for many countries when it comes to defence equipment. The UK is no exception, focusing on its national industry for many of its procurements. This has dramatically changed some procurements like the selection of the RCH 155 howitzer, for example, which included the requirement for domestic barrel production. However, TrellisWare is a US company, which presumably means that the new radios for the 4th Light Brigade will come from US production lines, rather than in the UK. The MPU5 is also provided by a US company and proudly manufactured in the US, according to the company’s website.

There is some element of the British programme that will be delivered from the UK; the MoD states that the procurement will create 12 domestic jobs. But it appears that this contract is another that has not gone to a domestic supplier. This might attract some criticism, especially when the MoD has placed so much emphasis on supporting UK small- to medium enterprises. 

However, it is safe to say that the British Army needs new radios. It cannot function effectively without modern waveforms and data bandwidth that can support the type of operations it is planning. So, this type of procurement probably should prioritise availability and delivery timeframes over national workshare. It also serves to minimise the complexity that is often added through very specific user requirements. If it proves successful, the BlackTree contract could serve as a model for re-equipping the rest of the force.

The lead image shows soldiers from the 1st Bn The Royal Gurkha Rifles whilst on exercise ULU WARRIOR in the Brunei jungle. Here they are communicating with their Bowman radio sets, but as part of the 4th Light Brigade Combat Team, they should soon receive the new TrellisWare radios. Credit: Cpl Anil Gurung/UK MOD © Crown copyright 2024.