Army IT Day: JTRS radios go to troops in Afghanistan, Korea, says PEO for C3T
The Army command responsible for equipping soldiers with radios and communications equipment is making sure that units getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan have the latest gear and that units in Asia will have the same capabilities, says MG N. Lee S. Price, PEO for C3T.
The Army command responsible for equipping soldiers with radios and communications equipment is making sure that units getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan have the latest gear. That command is also helping the Army prepare units in Asia as a part of the service’s strategic refocus to support operations in the region, said MG N. Lee S. Price, program executive officer for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T).
Since it moved from Fort Monmouth, N.J., to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., PEO C3T has restructured itself to better support the Army’s communications and networking needs, Price said March 13 at AFCEA NOVA’s Army IT Day.
One area where the command has been especially active is providing forces with a variety of tactical radios. Price noted that PEO C3T has taken over several of the Army’s Joint Tactical Radio Systems programs after the JTRS program office was disestablished in October 2012. The family of radios supporting JTRS waveforms include Rifleman Radios, handheld manpack small form fit (HMS), the small airborne networking radio (SANR), and the mid-tier networking vehicular radio (MNVR).
The command has been busy supporting the rollout of the various JTRS-based radios by working on the architecture of the communications networks they will operate on, allowing the radios to smoothly enter operation, Price said. PEO C3T is also reaching out to the commercial sector for new technology through a set of proposal requests.
“Instead of spending years of research and development, we’re harvesting what we can from industry,” she said.
PEO C3T also is heavily involved in supporting and evaluating the equipment and software capability sets that will equip units preparing to redeploy to Afghanistan. It already has equipped two brigades of the 10th Mountain Division and some units in the 101st Airborne Division, Price said. The command also is supporting the deployment of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical increment 2, which is key to the Army’s network modernization plans, she said.
As part of the Army’s pivot to operations in the Asia-Pacific region, Price noted that, PEO C3T has already upgraded the radios in 1,000 vehicles in Korea and is beginning work on the CETNRIXS-Korea.