Industry highlights Capability Set 13 hardware

Industry representatives have been quick to highlight the performance of their systems at the recently concluded Network Integration Evaluation 12.2, and how they will field as part of the Capability Set 13 (CS 13) architecture beginning in October.

General Dynamics C4 Systems officials, for example, point to the participation and contributions of that company’s AN/PRC-154 JTRS HMS Rifleman Radio and AN/PRC-155 JTRS HMS Manpack Radio.

“The HMS Manpack and Rifleman Radios are the only tactical radios that have been Systems Under Test at the NIE 12.2 event,” observed Chris Marzilli, president of General Dynamics C4 Systems. “This means that detailed performance data, such as message completion rate, has been gathered and analyzed by independent observers while soldiers stress the system. This rigorous testing often reveals operational issues that are not evident in field or laboratory evaluations, which can then be addressed before products are deployed to the field. HMS program radios are the only radios that have already been evaluated and had their test findings addressed.”

Company representatives characterize the -154 and -155 as “a success story for the Army’s Agile Acquisition process,” and point to the planned deployment of both radios within the CS 13 architecture.

Likewise, MG (Ret.) Dennis Moran, vice president of Defense Department business development for Harris Corporation RF Communications, was also quick to highlight the contributions of two of that company’s radios – the AN/PRC-117G and AN/PRC-152A – as part of CS 13.

“The -117G is doing two things in the architecture,” Moran explained. “First, it is a GMR (JTRS Ground Mobile Radio) surrogate as a backbone radio, taking the place in the brigade combat team of where the GMRs would have gone if that program would not have been terminated. That role is predominantly providing connectivity from the brigade headquarters, the brigade mobile elements, down to the battalions and then down to the companies.”

Moran said that connectivity will be in parallel with the Warfighter Information Network-T Increment 2, and is a complimentary architecture.

“The second purpose for the -117G is that it will be running SRW – the Soldier Radio Waveform – and it will be in the formation where the HMS Manpack would have been going had the HMS Manpack been ready for deployment with the initial brigades for Capability Set 13,” he said.

“The -152A is our handheld Type I radio that runs SRW, as well as the narrow band waveforms like SINCGARS, UHF TACSAT, and others,” he continued. “The -152A will also be deployed in Capability Set 13 in places where you must have a Type I (more secure) handheld radio. For example, if there are requirements to pass classified information up the fire support chain from the fire support officers to the batteries providing artillery support those communications are typically classified. They will be over SRW but they will require a Type I device, as opposed to the HMS Rifleman Radio, which is only Type II and can only carry sensitive but unclassified data.”

Moran concluded, “What the -117G and the -152A are doing for the warfighter is providing that connectivity all the way from the dismounted or mounted soldier at the edge up through that backbone network up to the brigade TOC.”