Teams led by Boeing and Lockheed Martin will submit bids by late March to develop the airborne, maritime/fixed-station (AMF) element of the US Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), with a decision on the development and demonstration contract expected in August.
AMF is the last of three "domains" to be awarded under the restructured JTRS programme, which is developing a family of internet protocol-based, software-defined radios for use by all the US services.
Boeing is already lead system integrator for the ground mobile radio (GMR), under which five of the software-defined waveforms planned for JTRS are being developed. These include the key wideband networking waveform to be used by all JTRS radios to enable wireless internet protocol networks to be formed on the battlefield.
The AMF programme covers development of JTRS radios for 20 platform types, including fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and surface vessels, but does not involve any waveform development, says John Lunardi, Boeing's director of network and information systems.
Source: Flight International
