Failing to address anti-jam capability of future radio would be a big mistake

Sometime over the next several weeks, the Army will release the final request for proposals in an effort to replace its ill-fated Ground Mobile Radio. The radio was canceled last year due to price and performance problems, leaving a gaping hole in the service’s plans for future battlefield communications. What the Army wanted was a vehicle radio that could connect with legacy systems already in the field while delivering new signals capable of supporting high-speed transmission of video, voice and data communications. What it got was a system too expensive and power-hungry to deploy in large numbers.

So now it’s back to the drawing boards with a new request for proposals that seeks similar high data-rate transmission capabilities in a more affordable package. Somewhere along the way, though, the Army dropped a vital requirement -- and that could doom the whole effort. Specifically, it eliminated the anti-jamming capability for the most capable signal the new radio must support, which is known as the “wideband networking waveform.”