Senate Panel Whacks $200M from JTRS Budget

The Senate Armed Services Committee chopped $200 million from the requested $775.8 million budget for Joint Tactical Radio System ground mobile radios in its version of the 2012 Defense Authorization bill marked up last week.

The committee said it cut the JTRS budget because it looks like the cost of the ground mobile radios had grown by 25 percent over original estimates and low rate production will likely slip another six months. Pentagon go-ahead for production of the maritime radio has slipped until next September and a contract award is not expected until 2013, the committee said.

Since JTRS has been struggling to make it from concept to reality for the past 14 years with little success, maybe it's time to finally kill it off.