Defense Technology International - July 2007 - (Page 35)

ID and position location functions in the radios, says Williams. “These are done by modiﬁcations to the software.” The U.S. military still relies on Sincgars radios for ground communications. ITT builds 5,700 units per month. “They will continue to be used for a long time,” Williams contends. “There is no plan to replace them because they ﬁll a vital need and are economical.” The continued use of older forms of software-deﬁned radios like Sincgars means purchasers of the JTRS radios must assure that the new radio can interoperate with existing systems. “Before purchasing a software-deﬁned radio, military radio buyers must answer the following question: Is this software-operated radio compatible with the systems we use?” Giaquinto says. To address backwards compatibility, suppliers have developed software-based waveforms that permit newer and older software-operated radios to communicate with each other. The SCA supports this interoperability by allowing the incorporation of older and newer waveforms in the same radio, says Dominick Paniscotti, vice president of engineering for SDR Products at PrismTech, a developer of SDR middleware in Burlington, Mass. “Military radio programs now require contractors not only to build next-generation waveforms but to deliver legacy waveforms as well.” Sincgars waveforms can run on the same radio as newer waveforms, he adds, as much as personal computers run older and newer versions of software. The advantages presented by SDR, as well as the need for coalition partners to communicate with each other, means that U.S. allies are also developing and acquiring software-deﬁned radios. But the U.S. remains several years ahead of its counterparts, according to Bicer. “Other militaries were waiting to see where the technology was going and how it is working out,” he says. The fact that coalition partners are moving forward with SDR is a sign they are conﬁdent of its future, Bicer asserts. The U.S. has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan for a cooperative research and development program, and the JTRS program ofﬁce has engaged in discussions with Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Singapore, Spain and Turkey. NATO also maintains an SDR ofﬁce, which has been active in helping members fund research programs. Radios in the F-16 will be replaced by a JTRS-compliant Multifunctional Information Distribution System radio, says Paniscotti. “All militaries apply the same business case to deploy new functionality quickly,” notes Steve Jennis, senior vice president of corporate development at PrismTech. “They are also driven by operational factors such as coalition engagements. Joint task forces can reduce casualties from friendly ﬁre.” But SDR’s capabilities are not inﬁnitely expandable. SDR is constrained by hardware considerations, says Wayne Iurillo, director of tactical communications systems at Raytheon, an SDR manufacturer. “If you don’t have a USB port on your computer, you can’t install a thumb drive. It’s possible a waveform will be developed that the front-end hardware can’t support. You can’t upgrade software indeﬁnitely without hardware changes.” Less powerful software-deﬁned radios will likely not be able to support the processing requirements U.S. Army sergeant radios information during search for insurgents near Syrian border in Iraq. SDR advances will improve ability of troops to communicate with different units. www.aviationweek.com/dti for the JTRS radios expected to be deployed on the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems vehicles. Those radios will require more bandwidth and boosted processing power, notes Diane Reineke, vice president for business development at Thales Communications, a U.S.-based subsidiary of the French electronics company. “The waveform to be deployed as part of FCS will be processor intensive,” she says. “Depending on the platform and the waveform, SDR hardware must operate within certain limitations.” The hiccups associated with early JTRS developments, and the change of mission which JTRS underwent as a result, gave a new lease on life to older, simpler versions of SDR and got strategists thinking about assigning separate roles to each. “As the economics and scheduling problems of JTRS came to light, the government modiﬁed its original intentions,” notes ITT’s Williams. “They are no longer trying to replace all of the radio systems.” For that reason, Williams sees a long future for Sincgars radios. “There are no JTRS radios available and won’t be for several years. Even when [they] become available, Sincgars will still be around.” The primary mission of software-deﬁned ground communications, now shouldered by Sincgars, is to have soldiers talk to one another over the VHF waveform, Williams notes. “That is the only thing a majority of soldiers have the need for. Why replace the inexpensive Sincgars radio with a much more expensive multichannel programmable radio with capabilities most warﬁghters will never use?” Instead, Williams anticipates Sincgars and JTRS radios will be deployed in tandem for years to come, at least until the costs of JTRS radios come down. “JTRS radios will be suited for those situations where a single radio may need to serve different functions,” he says. “If you have a mission where you would otherwise be required to carry four or ﬁve radios, that would be a good candidate for JTRS.” Despite its difﬁculties, there are signs that JTRS technology will achieve its potential. “The problems were concentrated in the ﬁrst phase of the program, which is to provide radios for U.S. Army ground and aerial vehicles,” says Mike Kosmicki, Mercury Computer’s director of business development. That ﬁrst phase “was based on technology that was available seven or eight years ago. Technology has advanced greatly since then.” More recent efforts, such as the development of handheld, manpack and small form sets for the FCS, Kosmicki says, “appear to be much more promising.” I U.S. ARMY TSGT. ANDY DUNAWAY JULY/AUGUST 2007 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 35 http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - July 2007

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