In both geo-political and defense terms, the world is now a far different place from the one that most of today's civilian and military leaders grew up in. Yet despite the emergence of new battle lines and foes, there was no major change in the basic concept of a tactical radio for many decades.
Change has now finally arrived, however, despite the challenges of shrinking budgets and reduced spending. Today's radios are very different from radios in the past, observed Josh Davidson, spokesperson for the Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T). "By drawing on a larger part of the available spectrum, newer radios enable soldiers to share vast quantities of data, video and digital information to execute their missions," he said. "Additionally, the new radios are also more flexible and capable of loading and supporting multiple waveforms, so they can route and retransmit information around obstacles and at greater distances."
"We're in a revolution as it relates to tactical radios," said MG Dennis Moran (ret.), vice president of government business development for Harris Corp. in Rochester, N.Y.
The tactical radios used for decades were primarily single purpose, narrowband systems. "They were designed to address a specific mission or use case with a primary focus on secure voice communications," said Tom Kirkland, senior director of DoD programs and pursuits for Thales Defense and Securities in Clarksburg, Maryland. Today's radios, however, can now accommodate multiple waveforms and channels on a platform as small as a handheld device. "They are able to simultaneously provide secure voice, position location information (PLI), application data and ISR data," Kirkland observed. "The soldiers at the edge today are capable of having the Common Operational Picture (COP) at their fingertips."
"Software defined radios can now go the next step to achieve improvements and efficiencies through an open innovative and competitive marketplace of multiple vendors hosting the government-provided software waveforms, ensuring interoperability between various vendor devices; interoperability between platforms, units and individuals; and interoperability between the defense services," said Navy CAPT Kevin Peterson, program manager, Joint Tactical Networks, PEO C3T.
Today and tomorrow
Today's software-defined tactical radios allow users to transmit and receive voice calls, data, images and video past terrain obstacles and beyond line of sight. The radios are designed to significantly increase lethality and mobility on the company, platoon or squad level, providing an information lifeline in support of decisive actions and greater force protection.
The Army is now looking to the Rifleman Radio, a handheld single-channel National Security Administration (NSA) Type 1 and 2 encrypted (Secret and below) to help troops deployed in highly challenging situations on the tactical edge. The Rifleman Radio is designed to allow dismounted troops to send messages, access mission-related applications and track fellow soldiers' locations with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology by linking to Nett Warrior, a secure Android phone-type device that serves as an integrated situational awareness (SA) system suitable for use during combat operations.
The Rifleman Radio has already been fielded to ten brigade combat teams (BCTs) of the 10th Mountain Division, 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division as part of the Army's Capability Sets (CS) 13 and 14. Working in conjunction with Nett Warrior, the Rifleman Radio can provide reliable digital communications and accurate position location information to dismounted soldiers. The arrangement has enabled U.S. forces in Afghanistan, for instance, to cover more ground with fewer troops.
The Army is also now in the process of procuring a vehicle mounted device called the SRW Appliqué, which is designed to extend the Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) network to vehicles by connecting a handheld radio, such as the Rifleman Radio, to a high power amplifier. The system relies on the vehicle's power in to extend signal range and connect the dismounted soldier to his or her company and battalion.
Another sign of change in tactical radios is the Manpack, which is the Army's first networking radio to provide up to two channels of NSA Type 1 encrypted (Secret) communications. With its dual channels, the Manpack can run different waveforms simultaneously, eliminating the need for more than one radio at any location. The radio can be mounted inside tactical vehicles or carried.
The Manpack uses the SRW, Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS), Ultra High Frequency Satellite Communications (UHF SATCOM) and the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) waveforms. The MUOS waveform enables satellite connections that allow soldiers to have voice, data and network connectivity from almost any point on Earth.
"The Manpack, which is going to be a competitive offering from a lot of different companies, including Harris, is going to bring with it the capabilities for two simultaneous channels in the exact same space where there used to be a single channel radio," Moran said. "And, ideally, you want to use the exact same number of batteries, because the weight on a dismounted soldier is absolutely critical."
Initial models of the Manpack have been fielded to eight brigade combat teams in the 10th Mountain, 101st Airborne (Air Assault) and 82nd Airborne divisions, whose soldiers have used the radios during training missions and while deployed to Afghanistan. The radio has also been evaluated by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division during several Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) exercises at Fort Bliss, Texas and White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
General Dynamics has delivered to the Army more than 5,000 AN/PRC-155 two-channel Manpack radios, according to Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, Ariz. "We are constantly improving the PRC-155 which is the only tactical radio to successfully connect and sustain voice and data communications using the MUOS satellite communications system," he said. "The company is looking forward to continued production of the radio supporting the roll out of the Army's Capability Set 15."
Increasing flexibility and usability
Tactical radios are now being developed with flexibility and modularity as an integral part of their core design, ensuring they are able to respond to emerging needs or technology advancements swiftly. "Today's tactical radios are uniformly software defined, offering the ability to introduce changes and upgrades in the field," observed David Cooper, technical director for BAE Systems in Alexandria Va.
"The device has got to be simple to use, just like a cell phone ideally," Moran said. "It will never be quite as simple (to use) as a cell phone, but ... make it so that the experience the soldier is having is as seamless as possible so that he or she can focus on the task that they're doing, which is enabled by the communication."
For the time being, however, users encountering new types of tactical radios face a substantial learning curve. "Today's tactical radios are more complex to configure and operate, but as the technology matures and the training becomes a part of the curriculum at Military Occupational Specialty (MOS)-specific schools, they will become easier," Kirkland said. "As with legacy radios, there is a learning curve that will diminish over time."
Network complexity is a particularly difficult challenge facing tactical radio users. "We have made great strides in simplifying network interfaces on WIN-T (Warfighter Information Network—Tactical) and continue to do more based on soldier feedback," Marzilli said. "General Dynamics, along with the Army, are continuing to invest significant resources to develop and integrate planning and management functions across the entire network from the WIN-T Upper Tactical Internet to the Lower Tactical Internet using Manpack and Rifleman radios."
On the other hand, today's tactical radios are far lighter than their predecessors, thanks to the use of embedded cryptology, software defined architectures and a continuous reduction in component size. "The radio of yesterday hosted a single waveform, weighed seven pounds and had a maximum power output of five watts," Kirkland noted. "Today's most advanced handheld radio, the MBITR2, weighs two pounds, provides two simultaneous channels, hosts 10 waveforms and provide five watts of power output on both channels."
"Today's radios are about half the size and weight per channel of currently deployed radios," Marzilli said. From a soldier's perspective, these radios are all about portability and the continuous reduction of the radio's size, weight and power, and so we recognize the demand to keep improving upon that."
A glimpse of the future
In the years ahead there will always be a need for tactical radios, specifically for disadvantaged users in remote locations, Kirkland observed. "But as the tactical network continues to mature and soldiers rely on more data, we will see a shift to LTE-like technology and the commercial handsets that accompany those networks." Technology enhancements, such as LTE, will come faster than a reduction in device size and weight, Kirkland predicted.
Future tactical radios will look less like today's radio "boxes" and will be embedded within tactical vehicles and soldier's network systems, Marzilli predicted. "They will be more intuitive and controlled by other onboard systems to quickly adapt to changes during a mission," he added. "Soldiers will have network connectivity and access to the most current situational awareness without having to change radio settings or update information."
In an electronic warfare environment, for example, the radio would sense a communications threat, such as jamming, and automatically change the communications waveform to one that is not vulnerable to the interference. "In fact, the radio could respond ... to defeat the threat, automatically and transparent to the soldier," Marzilli said.
The tactical radio of tomorrow will be seen merely seen as a pipe, Kirkland said. "It will be capable of switching between networks—waveforms—without user intervention based on the best transmission means," he noted. The soldier will only interface with his or her End User Device (EUD), he added, which will display the information relevant for his or her particular MOS. "The same EUD will be used in combat and garrison environments with seamless transition between the two areas of operation."
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