The Marine Corps is seeking a commercially available handheld device suitable for tactical mobile communications that can be purchase in large quantities on relatively short notice.
The request for information (RFI) was published last week by Marine Corps Systems Command seeking a “common handheld” and information on integration and interoperability with systems already in use by its Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) formations.
In line with the Army’s focus on the tactical network, PEO Soldier has advanced development on the Nett Warrior system. Most recently, PEO Soldier has included a Samsung Galaxy Note II smart phone as the chest-mounted “end-user device” that serves as the centerpiece of the system. Nett Warrior gives Soldiers from team leader upwards situational awareness on the battlefield.
“Across the DoD, various organizations are establishing programs to secure commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) handheld devices for sensitive communications, processing, storage, and display,” the RFI says, specifically mentioning form factors like smartphones and tablets. “The current Department of Defense (DoD) solutions fail to provide a low cost and short procurement timeline for secure enterprise level tactical deployment.”
The Marine Corps is following the Army in integrating ruggedized, secure smartphones into its kit. Army officials spent years developing Nett Warrior, which is an Android-based device modified to work with the service’s existing communications systems and hardened against intrusion and tampering to meet National Security Agency standards for mobile security. Nett Warrior is designed to provide mobile communication and other operational information to dismounted soldiers at the platoon, squad and team level.
An Army solicitation about a year ago sought information on fitting improvised explosive device detection applications and sensors into handheld devices.
“The objective is to mature advanced sensor designs and investigate methods to integrate sensor and display components into a lightweight and low cost handheld system that will provide a high probability of detection against the wide range of buried explosive hazard threats,” that Army document said.
Nett Warrior received enough funding to outfit three brigade combat teams with COTS handheld devices at the tactical level, allowing access to maps and other situational awareness information, according to the Army. Because the Army’s baseline hardware was designed and fielded with a modular open systems architecture (MOSA), the service can continually update and improve the application software.
Marines are looking for a device that includes dedicated generation, storage and encryption hardware and is available in a family of form factors ranging in size from phones to tablets. The preliminary requirements laid out in the RFI focus on reliability, ruggedness and ease of use in the field. The service also wants a device that can securely receive, store and transmit voice and text communications and full motion video on a high-definition screen.
At the moment, the Marine Corps wants industry to explain how non-developmental handheld devices can be rapidly modified into a fieldable system that meets NSA commercial solutions for classified (CSfC) standards of security.
“This will provide the ability to securely communicate data based on tactical radio networks in a solution that can be fielded in months, not years,” the Marine Corps says.