SOCOM eyes Android smartphones, tactical cellular networks

Correction: This story has been corrected to more accurately describe the GD300.

The U.S. Special Operations Command is shopping for radios that can hook into Android smartphones and tactical cellular networks to transmit broadband data for a next-generation communications system.

In a request to industry earlier this month, SOCOM said it is looking to acquire a nondevelopmental radio for team members with a range of just over a mile. Requirements include the capacity to plug-and-play with Android devices through a USB or serial port and also to run on either a Windows or Android operating system.

SOCOM said it wants a radio that can transmit voice and data at the same time and comes equipped with both commercial and GPS receivers. The equipment also must be capable of running military applications, specifically applications like the Tactical Ground Reporting system, a map-based tool developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and now widely used by the Army in Afghanistan.

In a related request for information in late April, SOCOM asked industry to participate in developing Special Operations Wireless Connectivity Capability systems based on commercial cellular third- and fourth-generation broadband data standards.

The command said it wants to demonstrate the use of such a network that supports up to 300 users and transmits data at the rate of 5 Mbps in a demonstration to be conducted in cooperation with the Naval Post Graduate School this August at Camp Roberts in California.

Both of the projects call for capabilities the Army has already demonstrated in its ongoing battlefield smartphone development project based at Fort Bliss, Texas. Mike McCarthy, co-leader of that program, said the Army has worked with both SOCOM and the Naval Postgraduate School on wireless and smartphone projects, but did not provide details.

Mike Iacobucci, SOCOM account manager for General Dynamics C4 Systems, said his company last August introduced an eight-ounce computer, the GD300, an Android based device that also runs TIGR software.

He said the GD 300 also includes a detachable radio interface kit that connects the GD300 to a tactical radio, enabling operators to connect to different tactical networks.

SOCOM said it wants to field the new smartphone radio no later than September.