Advanced Radios Ready to Take the Field

摘要

If the US Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program delivers on its promise of universally compatible, software-defined radios, the military will indeed advance its control of the airwaves. Radios in the field will be reprogrammed via instant wireless downloads and will be able to handle any new demand in radio-communications capabilities. This means that new and exotic waveforms could be transmitted to boots on the ground within seconds. Communications capabilities would be as up-to-date as the morning's white-board battalion briefing. (For more on software-defined radios, see "A Band for All Reasons," JED, January 2001, p. 49.) Fading are the single-function, "bandits-at-12-o'clock" radios that talked only to other legacy radios with the same, fixed hardware. JTRS technology would allow "any-to-any" connectivity with a new universe of radios that could adapt to changing missions without changing hardware. Military planners see future fields of fire controlled by "next generation" communications devices that transmit sensor data in real time to the shooter and communications from anyone to everyone.