The US Army is currently rethinking its strategy for developing telecommunications technology on the battlefield and is scheduled to conduct a series of exercises and tests this year that will compare different technologies, programs and equipment. Large-scale testing will help determine the type of army of the future and select the most appropriate technological solutions and ideas.
The first exercises are planned to be held in June - July this year at the White Sands military training ground. During the six weeks of baseline testing of the integrated networks, a series of mission-critical networking programs are planned that relate to data dissemination and collection systems.
First of all, various tactical communication devices JTRS will be tested: mobile ones, which are installed on cars and armored vehicles,
individual terminals that are worn in a backpack.
The exercise will also include several limited tests of the MSS and JCR (Modern Soldier System and Joint Capability Release) systems, which are part of the next generation Advanced Combat Control System (FBCB2).
Equipment testing is scheduled for the first four weeks. And in the fifth and sixth weeks, it is planned to conduct tactical exercises as part of the brigade. For a complete picture, each battalion of the brigade will have different sets of equipment, which will allow the military to evaluate, compatibility and compare the capabilities of devices from different manufacturers.
A comprehensive Brigade Task Force (BCT-IE) exercise is planned for October 2011, during which each soldier will operate in a communications battlefield. In the process of these exercises, the military plans to make a decision on the maturity of the latest technologies and the need for their adoption by the American army.
The result will be a comprehensive testing of the network in December 2012. Then it will be clear what kind of functionality the American army will receive in the next years.
Most of the military programs that are planned to be tested are aimed primarily at providing the soldier with maximum information about the current tactical situation and determining tactical advantages based on the situation.
JTRS, built on the basis of personal radio stations, maximizes the potential of the soldier, enabling him to collect the maximum amount of information about the current tactical situation. Ground forces equipped with multifunctional radio stations, in addition, will be able to control and communicate with unmanned platforms (precision missiles, automatic ground sensors, intelligent ammunition, weapons that will be used out of direct visibility). Military units and individual infantrymen will become versatile, more tenacious and deadly. To a large extent, the problems that were associated with the poor quality of communication in the city or mountains are minimized, when there is no direct visibility between military units and there is a sorely lack of data on the current tactical situation.
According to media reports, within the framework of JTRS HMS, three types of radio stations are being developed: individual ("hand-held"), portable and small (for ground systems and UAVs).
The individual radio station will be single-channel and will use two types of crypto-encryption. It will be provided by the infantrymen of the brigade tactical groups (BCT).
A portable radio station is a more powerful two-channel version of an individual one and will provide ample opportunities for almost any type of communication, including satellite. In 2010, the U. S. Army conducted exercises using 60 JTRS handheld terminals, Shadow drones, Black Hawk and Apache helicopters. The soldiers praised the low power consumption and communication range of up to 30 kilometers without relaying. The overwhelming majority of the soldiers were previously familiar with network technologies of this kind and had an idea of communication in the traditional "radio station-radio station" method. At the same time, JTRS offers a completely different architecture, when in fact each terminal is a kind of gateway that allows you to enter the communication network and get all its capabilities.
