Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Military: JTRS not about the box

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 13:42:06 -0500

Military: JTRS not about the box

BY Frank Tiboni
Feb. 26, 2004

Air Force and Navy officials want a software radio that gives improved
voice and data-sharing
capabilities so they can better carry out the military's emerging
network-centric warfare
doctrine.

The services do not want the Joint Tactical Radio System's airborne and
maritime/fixed station
(AMF) radio to simply let airmen and sailors use one device to speak and
send data on
frequencies from 2 MHz to 2 GHZ, said Air Force Lt. Col. Maryann Watson,
AMF JTRS
program manager, speaking Feb. 25 at the Software Radio Conference.

"We're not doing this for radios," Watson said. "We're doing this for
capability. We don't want
a new box." The Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, a
military education
group, sponsored the conference, held Feb. 24-25 in Alexandria, Va.

The Air Force, Navy and Army must buy 13,000 new radios for 75 aircraft,
50 ships and 20
fixed stations. Officials want industry to design the AMF radios with
similar form, fit and
functions, Watson said. But they do not want to constrain companies
during the 65-month
program. They want vendors to keep the same framework for the radios,
but they can provide
different casings and accessories, she said.

DOD officials want to build radios defined more by software than
hardware so they can be
more easily updated for new frequencies or functions.

In November 2003, Navy and Air Force officials decided to combine their
JTRS programs --
called Clusters 3 and 4, respectively -- because of their similar size
and capabilities. The
decision also strengthens the Defense Department's efforts to get the
services to work together
more closely on acquisitions and warfighting. The two services further
follow this philosophy by
taking turns managing the AMF radio program.

The Air Force requested proposals from industry earlier this month, with
a due date of March
22. The service plans to award two design contracts by June, and then
Air Force and Navy
officials will decide between the two vendors by May 2005, Watson said.

Industry officials from Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop
Grumman Corp.
negotiated with radio specialty vendors at the conference to join their
teams. Representatives of
the military's JTRS Joint Program Office, which oversees the
multibillion-dollar program, meet
today with industry officials.

The AMF radio represents one of four JTRS devices in development. The
Army also wants
one for vehicles and aircraft and another that soldiers can wear, and
the Special Operations
Command wants one for elite Army, Navy and Air Force troops.

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2004/0223/web-jtrs-02-26-04.asp

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