What are cool trends in tactical communications?

2013-11-11T12:34:06-05:00

What do you think is cool with tactical comms?  What needs to happen?  What do you think the future entails?  Differences in what the services require?  

Response by CW2 David Theriault made Nov 11 at 2013 10:09 PM

2013-11-11T22:09:10-05:00

Seamless integration of Tactical Comms into Mobile Devices. - Leveraging FM as well as TACSAT comms for SA, BFT and FMV - Interoperability (tying in multi-bands onto your Mobile Device What Should happen? Government PMO's should leverage COTS solutions /apps to expedite injecting these technologies into the forces.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 11 at 2013 10:21 PM

2013-11-11T22:21:03-05:00

Best advice I can give on Tactical comms and what all the new and up and coming stuff is check out the Network Integration and Evaluation (NIE) and WIN-T Inc 1.5 and 2. Alot of comms on the go kind of stuff.

Response by SGT Thomas Sullivan made Nov 11 at 2013 11:44 PM

2013-11-11T23:44:05-05:00

I made a similar thread in here that no one responded to. WIN-T is an awesome program that I work for directly at the PM level. There is alot on the burner waiting to come out, just getting all the tech through the red tape and "everyone needs to sign this to get credit" phase is glacial.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 13 at 2013 3:44 PM

2013-11-13T15:44:06-05:00

I had recently attended Rajant radio training in Arizona for their Breadcrumb wireless mesh networking system. Their Breadcrumbs support TRoIP (Tactical Radio over IP) and I believe that they have been used Downrange. Just thought that I'd share that.

Response by CPT Mike M. made Nov 13 at 2013 4:45 PM

2013-11-13T16:45:50-05:00

One that was popular my last deployment was the DTCS radios. It's a really small handheld that if memory serves right has about a 250 mile range. Ultra light and portable for individual soldiers to use.

Response by Maj Eli Edelkind made Nov 14 at 2013 10:35 PM

2013-11-14T22:35:25-05:00

Wow, I didn't think people would actually respond. This is a good dialogue. Glad there are some fellow techies on here.

Response by CW2 David Theriault made Nov 14 at 2013 11:38 PM

2013-11-14T23:38:16-05:00

Memory Lane... A very smart retired Navy Senior Chief working as a government civilian at Bragg was also a very geeky and extremely smart ham radio operator. In his ham life he did voice, morse and packet over VHF, UHF and HF bands. To tie in all of those bands they used this little company out of the UK named Twisted Pair to "bridge" over multiple bands and allow radio and voice relay through this thing called the internet. On a whim he brought that software to work in 2001 and by Spring 2002 he and two Senior SOF COMMO NCO's had it working on TACSAT, VHF and UHF. I. Eleven the ability to leverage technologies such as WAVE to assist in MARS communications as you have the ability to dispatch! cross-patch over the internet or radio datalink. As an App you can us that technology on your ipad, smartphone etc and now "transmit" a radio call back in your command center etc.

Response by CW2 David Theriault made Nov 14 at 2013 11:42 PM

2013-11-14T23:42:50-05:00

MESH.. Harris ANW2, persistent systems and others. What I have seen and we have had ANW2 running across 8 aircraft in-flight running, VTC, voice and data traffic is that the PRC117G networks will slow down when running ad hoc mesh. So much so that our customer separated his ANW2 network in half.

Today the PRC-152A is now out and that is half the size of a 117g and can supposedly do 1/2 the datarate running ANW2 of a 117G.

Still the ability to do voice and data securely is incredible. Not to mention now you can roll over to a first responder P25 network.

Response by Maj Eli Edelkind made Nov 15 at 2013 12:46 AM

2013-11-15T00:46:05-05:00

What do you think software defined routing will do, if anything, to tactical networks?

Response by Maj Eli Edelkind made Nov 15 at 2013 1:18 AM

2013-11-15T01:18:44-05:00

What are challenges to using commercial handheld devices on the "tactical edge?"

*Please keep it unclass folks ;-) Just conceptually speaking.

Response by CW2 David Theriault made Nov 15 at 2013 7:01 AM

2013-11-15T07:01:46-05:00

I am working with a partner company now that is leading the charge in utilizing 5khz and 25khz TACSAT channels over the INMARSAT I-4 constellation. Using one of their widgets at your radio to convert the signal. The TACSAT on-the-move antenna is about as big as a softball.

Response by SGT Chris Birkinbine made Nov 15 at 2013 12:52 PM

2013-11-15T12:52:51-05:00

What needs to happen? We need to get on board with quantum entanglement research and see how it can be applied to communications. If you can do that, you solve the problem of security, you completely wipe out the limited frequency issues, like overcrowding, overload, etc. No longer need filters to take out bleed over for neighboring band users. You now have instant communication across the galaxy, let alone the ocean.

Sorry, was that a little too far off into the future? :D

Response by Maj Eli Edelkind made Nov 23 at 2013 7:21 PM

2013-11-23T19:21:01-05:00

Anybody hear of MUOS? What do you think is the coolest aspect of MUOS?