The Army has launched an effort to replace 7,000 aircraft radios with upgraded versions that improve transmission of voice, video, force tracking and situational awareness data.
A draft request for proposals for a small airborne networking radio (SANR) was published Thursday, detailing the program that will replace the ARC-201D radios installed in Army helicopters. SANR is the leg of the Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS) that provides a communication link between ground forces and aircraft.
The Army will award a single, five-year base plus one five-year option indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract under which it plans to procure around 7,000 SANR over a 10-year period. Once SANR is on contract, the Army will have all elements of its tactical radio system – which also includes the handheld Rifleman Radio, the HMS Manpack Radio and the Mid-tier Vehicular Networking Radio (MNVR) – in production.
Likely competitors include radio manufacturers already holding JTRS contracts: Harris Corp. [HRS], Thales Group, General Dynamics [GD] and Rockwell Collins [COL]. Lockheed Martin [LMT] is listed on the government’s contracting website as an interested vendor.
“The initial five-year option gives the Army an opportunity to make adjustments if technology matures during that time,” said Col. James Ross, project manager for Tactical Radios (PM TR). “It also allows vendors that aren’t able to meet the Army’s criteria now to compete in the future.”
Photo: U.S. Army
SANR will be installed on the AH-64 Apache, the CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters as well as the MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aerial system (UAS). It should operate three networking waveforms: the Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) and the Wideband Networking Waveform (WNW), as well as the legacy Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) waveform.
Each aircraft will carry two radios, each capable of running three distinct waveforms, instead of a single one-channel ARC-201D. Therefore, every aircraft will be able to monitor and transmit on two waveforms simultaneously.
Through a series of requests for information (RFI) and visits to manufacturers, the Army has been trying to maintain a steady flow of information between itself and industry as the service refines its SANR requirements.
The Army plans to hold an industry day at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., after the draft RFP is released, giving vendors an opportunity to ask questions, gather information and synchronize schedules.
Once the Army awards the SANR contract, the vendor will supply 100 radios, of which 19 will undergo a series of government verification tests aboard Apaches. The remaining 81 will be used for platform integration research, development, test and evaluation.
Both the SANR and the Mid-tier Networking Vehicular Radios (MNVR) installed on tactical ground vehicles use the wideband waveform, which allows soldiers to talk and chat, collaborate, share reports and send data at the battalion and brigade levels, and provide the mid-tier that links the Lower Tactical Internet with the Upper Tactical Internet.
“Due to the complexity of integrating the SANR onto aviation platforms, the Army will award the contract to a single vendor, reducing the risk and complexity by ensuring that platform integration, airworthiness certification, waveform interoperability and tactical communications are sustained throughout the life cycle of SANR,” according to a statement from the Army’s Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO-C3T).
The Army validated the need for the mid-tier networking vehicular radio (MNVR) in May at the Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 16.2 at Fort Bliss, Texas, and limited user test (LUT) conducted in May 2015 during a previous NIE. The MNVR program is moving toward a Milestone C decision, which will authorize the Army to purchase Low-Rate Initial Production radios later this summer.
But the Harris AN/VRC-118 radio’s performance was questioned by the Pentagon director of test and evaluation. A report by chief weapon tester Michael Gilmore questioned the radio’s effective range and whether it could fulfill operational requirements for a mid-tier communication system without an airborne repeater node to provide beyond-line-of-sight connectivity.
The Army readily admitted that MNVR has range limitations and contended that on-the-spot feedback from users indicated that the radio enabled mid-tier network provided a critical communications capability when satellite connections were cut. The SANR would effectively provide an airborne connectivity node that will allow two vehicles to communicate beyond line of sight by bouncing signals off a SANR-equipped aircraft between them.