By Carlo Munoz
The Army and the Marine Corps are the latest services to express interest in Boeing‘s [BA] new battlefield communications, command and control system, which the company is pitching as a near-term gapfiller for the air and sea version of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS).
Service officials from both branches are interested in integrating initial versions of the Air and Maritime JTRS gapfiller system at upcoming, large-scale service exercises in Yuma, Ariz., and the Carolinas, according to Tom DuBois, a technical fellow with Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security sector who is overseeing the system’s development.
AMF JTRS is an encrypted, Internet Protocol, software-reprogrammable, multi-band/multi-mode capable, mobile ad-hoc network that will enable Army, Air Force and Navy warfighters to share real-time voice, video and data communications. AMF JTRS will be the first JTRS program that will link air, ground and sea echelons.
There is currently no service or Pentagon requirement for a JTRS Air and Maritime gapfiller system.
The Boeing system moves beyond traditional “point to point” communications among air and ground forces via a networked approach allowing data gathered from multiple sources to be shifted between elements of a roughly battalion-sized force, DuBois told Defense Daily in March.
A prototype version of the C2 system was tested as part of the Air Force’s recent Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX), at Nellis AFB, Nev. During that exercise, DuBois said program officials were able to successfully demonstrate a 20-node network to coordinate air and ground operations.
Once fully developed, the new system will be able to field a 50-node system capable of transmitting everything from full-motion video feeds to voice communications vertically through a unit’s chain of command, and horizontally between various elements within a unit, according to DuBois.
The highly-portable system can either be mounted at ground-based command and control bases or on board aircraft, to provide beyond-the-line-of-sight communications, DuBois added. To that end, Boeing officials have already done live-flight tests of the system on board the Army’s AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the Marine Corps’ MV-22 Osprey, DuBois said. Ground tests aboard the CH-47 Chinook have also been completed, he added.
The system features Tier One AES-256 data encryption as well as anti-jamming capabilities, the Boeing official said, as well as a “cursor on target” operations system that is only available on U.S. variants of the system. For potential international sales, DuBois said company officials can develop an operating system within the required “data distribution standards” for foreign military sales of such equipment, via an open architecture approach.
Regarding international interest, DuBois said the strongest inquiries have come from countries looking to field the system on board their fleet of Chinooks. Members of the “Five Eyes” international intelligence sharing consortium have also indicated interest in the system. Those countries include the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Military leaders from India and Singapore have also looked into fielding the system, according to DuBois.
Members of the National Security Agency recently cleared JTRS AMF, which is being developed by Lockheed Martin [LMT] through its critical design review this month (Defense Daily, April 18).