Clansman (military radio)

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Clansman
The PRC 320 HF Radio
Type	Radio Communications System
Place of origin	United Kingdom
Service history
In service	1978 – 2000, 1982 – ~ 2004
Used by	British Army and then Army Cadet Force
Wars	Rhodesian War Falklands War Gulf War
Production history
Designer	SRDE
Designed	1970s
Manufacturer	Racal, Marconi, Mullard Equipment Ltd (MEL) and Plessey
Produced	1980s

Clansman is the name of a combat net radio system (CNR) used by the British Army from 1976 to 2010.

Clansman was developed by the Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE) in the 1960s, to satisfy a General Staff Requirement (GSR) laid down in 1965. Clansman represented a considerable advance over existing Larkspur radio system, and proved to be more flexible, reliable and far lighter. The technological advances in the design of Clansman allowed the introduction of Single SideBand (SSB) operation and NarrowBand Frequency Modulation (NBFM) to forward area combat net radio for the first time.

Most Clansman radio equipment was built by Racal, Mullard Equipment Ltd (MEL) and Plessey, although headsets and ancillaries were also produced by Amplivox (who were later subsumed into Racal Acoustics), Marconi and others. Clansman was in use by British forces from the late 1970s and saw service in most UK military operations. It was replaced in the mid-2000s by the Bowman communication system.

Clansman continued to be used by the UK Cadet Forces until 2016 when it was finally withdrawn and replaced with a more modern system.^[1]