JOINT TACTICAL RADIO (JTR)


MISSION NEED STATEMENT (MNS)

FOR THE

JOINT TACTICAL RADIO (JTR)

21 August 1997


1. Defense Planning Guidance (DPG) Element. This MNS responds to fiscal years 1996-2003 DPG for Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I). It directs CJCS and the Services to provide the Deputy Secretary of Defense with a plan to define DoD-wide requirements and to consolidate service programs into an interoperable, joint program for the development and acquisition of affordable, high-capacity tactical radios to meet the bandwidth needs of various echelons. This will consist of using a family of digital, modular, software-programmable radios, ranging from a low-cost joint tactical digital radio to a higher-capability, joint multi-band, multi-mode radio to provide timely dissemination of battlespace command and control, intelligence, air navigation, and combat identification information to the warfighter at all levels.

2. Mission and Threat Analysis.

3. Nonmaterial Alternatives. There are no operational concepts, tactics, or changes in organization or training that can be implemented to overcome these deficiencies.

4. Potential Material Alternatives. Speakeasy was an ARPA-sponsored, Air Force-led, joint technological development effort which produced a useable systems architecture and demonstrated software reprogrammable, multi-band, multi-mode communications capabilities at the Army Task Force XXI, Advanced Warfighting Experiment in March 1997 Identification Communication Navigation Integrated Avionics (ICNIA) and the Joint Combat Information Terminal (JCIT) are related efforts oriented toward developing a multi-band, multi-mode capability to integrate legacy radios for air platforms. The Army's Near Term Digital Radio (NTDR) program is designed to procure and test a low-cost networked data radio capable of providing own position location and transporting command and control as well as situation awareness information between tactical operations centers. The Army led Joint Tactical Terminal (JTT) program is a effort to procure an open system architecture terminal to support the Integrated Broadcast System (IBS). The Joint Maritime Communications System (JMCOMS) program is a Navy-led acquisition program to acquire Commercial Off-the-Shelf/Non-Developmental Item (COTS/NDI) modular programmable radios (Digital Modular Radio (DMR) and Integrated Terminals Program (ITP) and integrated, automated network management (Automated Digital Networking System (ADNS)).

5. Constraints.

6. Joint Potential Designator. The recommended designation is Joint.