By Geoff Fein
Lockheed Martin [LMT] is touting a new 3G broadband network for the military that will enable any government approved, commercially available smart phone to link in and use the system.
The technology, called MONAX, is all about connecting the dismounted warfighter at the first tactical mile, Glenn Kurowski, MONAX program director, told reporters yesterday at a company briefing in Arlington, Va.
Seeing how warfighters are carrying more gear built for single purpose use, Lockheed Martin engineers wanted to see if they could come up with a solution for a single device with multiple applications for a soldier with multiple jobs, Kurowski said.
The company began exploring if it could use smart phone technology to answer that question, he added.
MONAX starts with the network, Kurowski said.
The technology uses a commercial 3G network, but unlike the way network systems are located in cities across the United States, Kurowski told reporters, putting up network structures in theater can be a difficult challenge.
“How do we get that affordable 3G cellular capability? We can’t rent space on towers or school buildings like we do in the U.S.,” he said. “We need to be able to do it smarter than just fixed terrestrial towers. MONAX allows us to put cell base stations on aerostats, C-130s, in vehicles.”
MONAX brings distance and range required for operations and the network won’t jam existing commercially available networks in places such as Afghanistan, Kurowski added.
Even though MONAX will be a secure network, it will still be possible for personnel to use government issued smart phones, similar to what consumers find at any cell phone store, he said.
That is because smart phones are easy to use, require little training to operate, they are low cost, can serve multiple purposes and developing applications for the devices is much easier today, Kurowski noted.
“We participated in an experiment at Joint Forces Command. As we developed applications and put them on smart phones what was the last thing developers did? They wrote training manuals,” he said.
Those training manuals were never opened, Kurowski added.
“You could hand the young officer or non-com the device and whether it was a biometric app or mapping app or an ISR viewing app or we even had a UAV control app, they did not need training. They could just pick it up and go with it,” he said. “You get that by going with a commercial smart phone.”
However, Kurowski acknowledged that to connect those commercially available smart phones to the network, there needs to be an infrastructure suitable for Afghanistan or any other area of responsibility.
“It means you need to have something between that smart phone and that infrastructure,” he said.
What MONAX brings is a way to take that commercial smart phone, put it in a case, not unlike the protective cases consumers buy for their phones, and connect to the network, Kurowski said.
The technology, called MONAX Lynx, is a sleeve that fits over any available smart phone, and provides additional battery capability and the connectivity to the 3G private network, he added.
“Now you have a smart phone device that you are used to culturally. You have a mission capability tied to a broadband persistent communication system that can be put into theater with the frequency and range and all of the characteristics [to provide this capability] in the first tactical mile,” Kurowski said.
A soldier can also use the phone in a traditional sense, without the sleeve, he added. “You don’t need to plug into the sleeve to have network operation. The phone can be in a pocket, vest, or on a belt and it will operate effectively.”
Although service leaders have noted their interest in MONAX, Kurowski said the effort is not under contract with any program office nor even a program of record. The company, he added, developed MONAX on its own funding.
“[We] won’t be under contract until we have product capability they can actually purchase. That’s why we are making this announcement,” he said. “We are now at the point where we have the vehicle and the capability for them to acquire it.”
The base station and MONAX Lynx are both available on the General Services Administration’s schedule, Kurowski added.