Washington: Communications-technology company Persistent Systems is outfitting the US Air Force’s mobility command with hundreds of radios and erectable antennas to soup up logistics in remote environments and disaster-relief operations.

The MPU5 handheld radios furnished under a $5.1 million contract can share voice, video and text, as well as positioning and sensor data, and the antennas further extend connectivity. The tech is a major step up from the old “walkie-talkie” radios sometimes found in the field, the company said in a statement.

“Our MPU5s deliver robust, secure, broadband line-of-sight and beyond-line-sight communications, and they do so without Air Force personnel having to rely on third-party infrastructure, which is key in a contested environment,” Adrien Robenhymer, Persistent’s vice president of business development for Air Force and intelligence community programs, said in a statement.

The equipment will be used by contingency response groups, which quickly deploy to establish command and control, maintenance and refuelling hubs where military infrastructure is otherwise lacking.

As the Pentagon prepares for potential fights in the Indo-Pacific and Europe, the Air Force is pursuing what’s known as agile combat employment. The ACE concept envisions a hub-and-spoke layout of bases — some large and fixed, others small and mobile — that will scatter supplies and manpower.