Those polled said that resiliency and cyber protection are the two most valued requirements for future milcom systems. The survey also found that there is widespread agreement that the current acquisition systems in place across the Air Force, Army, Navy and DoD are too creaky.
By Theresa HitchensROC-X – The solution to organic precision strike capabilities
At AUSA Global Force 2024, IAI will present integrated, AI-driven combat systems – both manned and unmanned – that are opening new opportunities on the battlefield.
The software defined radios will make F/A-18E/F and F-22 aircraft communications nodes in a coalition network.
By Barry Rosenberg
Yesterday, the Army awarded three companies a $12.7 billion, 10-year contract for over 60,000 manpack radios. But execs at General Dynamics, Harris, and Rockwell Collins shouldn’t pop champagne corks yet. The Army has radically changed how it buys radios in recent years so that what the “winning” companies have actually won, in essence, is the…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
UPDATED 2:00 pm Tuesday with detailed 2015 budget figures WASHINGTON: The 2015 budget effectively kills the Army’s top priority weapons program, the 60-plus-ton Ground Combat Vehicle — as we’ve been predicting since November — but GCV did not die in vain, the Army’s acquisition chief insists. “We sacrificed the GCV” to save programs upgrading electronics…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: Defense contractor General Dynamics has taken hits from the Army, from the Pentagon’s independent Director of Operational Test & Evaluation and from us about its role in the troubled Joint Tactical Radio Systems program. Now, in an interview this morning, the president of GDC4S (that’s General Dynamics Command, Control, Communications, & Computer Systems), Chris Marzilli,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Part outsider, part incumbent, Harris Corp. is eagerly upsetting applecarts by taking on defense industry colossus General Dynamics and other established contractors in its bid to grab a hat trick in this year’s Army radio competitions. The largest service is expected to make awards in three of its largest communications programs this year as early…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
As the Army prepares to choose the new builder of its handheld digital radios, the incumbent contractors are tryiing to convince Congress to keep other companies out. The incumbents are General Dynamics, which publicly apologized to the Army over its half of the program last year, and Rockwell Collins. The Army’s own chief of acquisitions,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Why cloud modernization is critical to multi-domain operations
JADC2 is a forcing function, driving digital transformation of network infrastructure.
WASHINGTON: While Army forces in Afghanistan have more bandwidth and gadgetry than ever, bases back home still make do with archaic copper-wire telephone switches. As the war winds down and units increasingly operate out of the US, the challenge for the Army’s CIO is to move the whole service to a single set of compatible,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: The Army took a major step today towards opening up a major radio program to full and open competition, issuing a formal Request For Information today asking industry’s input on the Rifleman Radio program. [More on this story: Radio contractor General Dynamics apologizes to the Army] The hand-held Rifleman Radio and the backpack-sized Manpack…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.ARLINGTON, VA: At $2.6 million, the contract award that Lockheed Martin will announce today to upgrade something called the Distributed Common Ground System is a rounding error in the aerospace giant’s $46.5 billion annual revenue. But in an age of austerity, when mega-programs like Lockheed’s flagship Joint Strike Fighter are under ever-increasing scrutiny, small can…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.CAPITOL HILL: Several defense giants battled today over $500 million in 2013 funding for a radio program as the House defense policy bill headed to the floor. The fight centered on two versions of the Joint Tactical Radio System, the Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio MNVR (son of GMR) and the HMS tactical radio. Company lawyers…
By Colin ClarkA mobile Army command-and-control system called “WIN-T Increment 2” set up for testing at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Army Seeks New Network Tech For New Brigades’ Post-Afghanistan Missions The U.S. Army is shrinking, but its appetite for new network technology is only going to grow. Though the military has invested massively in digital infrastructure over its…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Army’s attempt to reboot its troubled Ground Mobile Radio program has hit yet another snag, with accusations that the revised requirements omit a crucial capability to protect soldiers’ signals from enemy jamming and accidental interference. As a result, wrote defense analyst, consultant, and AOL contributor Loren Thompson in a recent blog post, “soldiers dependent…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Washington: After a series of successful flight tests in New Mexico last week, a version of the Joint Tactical Radio System could be back in the Army’s arsenal as soon as next fiscal year. An airborne version of the Lockheed Martin-built radio, known as Airborne/Maritime Fixed JTRS, flew several test flights aboard the Army’s newest…
By Carlo Munoz
