General Dynamics’ [GD] C4 Systems is producing the first units of the low rate initial production (LRIP) orders for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Rifleman radio and Manpack Radios, with the first shipments slated for November, a company official said.
The two radios are part of the JTRS Handheld, Manpack and Small Form Fit (HMS) program.
Rifleman radio LRIP production is building the initial order for 6,250 units, while the first 100 Manpack radios are being produced.
Then, brigades will be equipped as they move through the Army force generation cycle.
“For FY ‘12 there is an intent to equip the first eight brigades with a network built with Rifleman radios plus Manpack radios,” said Chris Brady, vice president of Assured Communications Systems for General Dynamics C4 Systems.
The PRC 154 Rifleman radio is a handheld radio, about 32 cubic inches in size, he said. A soldier in a squad would carry it as well as team and squad leaders and the entire platoon. This radio provides the network so they can get data and voice services, similar to a cell phone.
The PRC 155 Manpack radio is for units above platoon. “In this instance, it’s quite a bit more than existing manpacks in that it is a two channel radio that is able to both work with the wideband waveforms like (Soldier Radio Waveform) SRW and also the legacy narrowband waveform like (single channel ground and airborne radio system) SINCGARS, UHF sitcom, and also future wave forms like the future (Mobile User Objective System) MUOS satellite system,” he said.
The final phases of the MUOS waveform are being developed on the Manpack architecture, he said. It will be the first radio running that waveform.
The Manpack is a kind of gateway for a platoon of Rifleman radios to communicate up to other tiers of the Army’s network, Brady said. Because it has two channels, the Manpack can be carried in a rucksack and is similar in size to existing manpack radios. However, because it has two channels, it can route between networks and also has more power. The two channels are amplified up to 20 watts each, whereas the handheld Rifleman radio goes up no more than 5 watts.
The Rifleman radio also was evaluated as part of an AAI Corp. [TXT] Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle during the summer’s Network Integrated Evaluation (NIE) at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
“It’s a great application for the radio,” Brady said. “Things that a soldier is concerned about, size, weight, and power for a long battery life is exactly the concern of the UAV community.”
The rifleman radio fits that UAV application by its very nature, he said, because the SRW forms a network. So if there’s an airborne asset, other radios on the ground can all network through that airborne asset to reach destinations they couldn’t directly reach by line-of-sight.
“There is definite movement on a number of fronts in Army aviation toward adopting these HMS radios for various UAVs, so we expect it will lead to some decision at some point over the next few quarters,” Brady said.
Also, several Small Form Factors (SFF), part of the JTRS HMS program designed to be embedded in other platforms, could apply. There’s a growing interest in using SFF B, for example, in a UAV.
SFF B, originally designed to be used by a soldier leader, is essentially a stripped down Manpack, he said. It “looks like green box with a bunch of connectors.” Designed to be embedded in another platform, it does not have its own display or battery. The core of the SFF B is the same two channels and the security capability of the Manpack.
“It’s viewed as overkill for that (Soldier) application but it may very well fit the capabilities they’d like to see on the larger UAV,” he said.
From the beginning JTRS HMS was to have a couple of core technologies that could be mixed and matched into larger packages as needed. SFF A, for example, is designed to go into sensors and even smaller UAVs and has a core radio similar to the Rifleman radio but doesn’t have a display, or a battery. It is designed to take all that from its embedded platform.
Other HMS applications include Sidewinder, which is being tested right now for the November NIE 12.1, Brady said. The Alpha and Delta companies of the first 1st Battalion, 35th Armor Regiment will have access to the Navistar Defense LLC [NAV] MaxxPro Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles equipped with the combination Sidewinder/Rifleman Radio mounted inside.
Sidewinder is a vehicle mount for the the Rifleman radio, he said. The radio is in a slightly larger box with the same power ampflier as in the Manpack radio. That box can then be installed in a wide variety of the Army’s existing vehicular mounts.
“It’s a quick way for them to get a single channel of Soldier Radio Waveform into vehicles that may only have SINCGARS today and it is a far less-costly approach than putting a full-blown Manpack or single-channel Manpack in that vehicle for SRW,” Brady said.
He believes there’s a serious requirement in the Army for some thousands of units of these in the near term.
General Dynamics is also looking at HMS for a potential Low Cost Radio System (LCRS) competition for a more cost-effective and smaller JTRS Ground Mobile Radio (GMR), which has breached program costs and is reconfiguring.
The LCRS would aim at “a better price point and to some degree better performance, and especially better size and install-ability characteristics,” Brady said. Because of its size, the HMS Manpack is already designed to be very portable and is effective in size, weight and power.
“By the end of next year we’ll be running our Manpack radios with the WNW waveform,” Brady said. “We believe that will be a very attractive option for the LCRS competition, which we expect will have an RFP before the end of this year or early next year.”