Iris Program

In 1991, GD Canada won the Canadian Army's Tactical Command, Control and Communications (TCCCS) program. GD Canada acted as the Prime Contractor to deliver a turnkey, fully-integrated digital voice and data system, providing seamless communication between the forward edge of the battle area and Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa.

The Iris System is a modern, highly integrated, complex Command, Control and Communications system designed to provide the Canadian Army with tactical communications for field forces, from the individual soldier up to divisional level. It comprises a complete family of modern radio equipment that will provide the Army with an integrated, embedded voice and data-encryption and frequency-hopping capability. Additionally, the Iris System provided a Local Area System for vehicle and headquarters intercommunications, a Wide Area System for interunit and formation trunk communications and a Long-range Communications System using a combination of HF radios and satellite ground terminals for internal and external communications. These systems provide the user with a converged voice and data system based on IP routing. A Tactical Message Handling System based the X.400 messaging standard, a System Management and Control System consisting of a Communications Management System and a Crypto Material Management System and a GPS based Situational Awareness System were also provided to the user as part of the deployed system. Approximately 2 million lines of operational software code bind the components together into a system, and embed the functionality in an integrated form.

Designed following a Integrated Product Development Systems Engineering approach, the Iris System was developed as an integrated system with significant interdependencies, and not just as a large collection of hardware and software. Therefore, it is maintained and supported as a system. Principles of configuration control have been strictly applied to ensure that all elements of the Iris System can interoperate seamlessly with each other throughout the process of Planned Product Improvement being used to ensure system effectiveness.

Final delivery of the Iris System was completed in 2002 following extensive testing and trials, and has been successfully deployed operationally in Bosnia and Afghanistan.