North America
Oregon's Armed Occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
On January 2, 2016, armed protesters occupied the headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County Oregon, USA. Due to the severity of the situation, multiple federal agencies were called in to assist. The federal agencies were tasked with rapidly deploying a robust encrypted LMR network in the vast 187,757 acre park to provide critical communications.
The radio network had four critical requirements:
- A secure P25 transportable repeater system
- A repeater capable of working in remote locations
- An LTE encrypted secure tunnel with a nationwide destination point
- Rapid deployment
On the first day of occupation, the federal agencies deployed a 30W Codan Stratus tactical repeater to enable communication between those on the ground and headquarters. The encrypted first responder voice transmitted locally and had the capability to also be transmitted to multiple agency command headquarters, located in Los Angeles, Seattle and Quantico, with an LTE network connection.
The siege lasted 41 days and ended with one fatality and 26 arrests. The Codan Stratus solution provided a constant communications network for up-to-the-minute updates between multiple agencies and across the country. The reliable radio communications assisted the agencies in successfully completing their mission.