Army Rangers test Rifleman Radio in Afghanistan
By
Bob Brewin
Army Rangers deployed to Afghanistan kicked off a field assessment of a Joint Tactical Radio System small, handheld radio this month, said Army Col. John Zavarelli, program manager for the Rifleman Radio, which is designed to provide voice and data communications for soldiers.
Zavarelli said the 75th Ranger Regiment received 125 Rifleman Radios developed by General Dynamics at the start of December and will assess them in combat conditions through the end of the month. With spares, this is enough radios to equip two 40-person platoons, he said.
The Rangers conducted three stateside training evaluations during the past year, he said, providing critical feedback for improvements to the radios deployed to Afghanistan.
The 2-pound Rifleman Radio, like all radios in the JTRS family, uses software to define bandwidth and frequencies, and like a computer, must be booted to operate. Zavarelli said the radios furnished to the Rangers in Afghanistan have a faster boot time over previous versions, but declined to give specifics.
The latest iteration of the Rifleman Radio also draws less power than previous versions, which means it now has a longer battery life, Zavarelli said. Based on feedback from the Rangers in tests earlier this year, the program office also modified its voice annunciator, which audibly informs soldiers of the status of the radio, channel presets and their location, based on a built-in chip.
The Rifleman Radio's software allows for a range of voice prompts, Zavarelli said, but Rangers in tests earlier this year told the program office that fewer prompts are better, with status and location being the most important.
The Rangers also will assess use of the radio with a wearable computer from General Dynamics, the GD 300, which runs on the Android operating system developed by Google. Zavarelli said the Rangers will determine the power drain of the computer of the Rifleman' Radio's batteries.
The range of the Rifleman Radio, which operates in the 223-400, 406-420, 1250-1390 and 1755-1850 MHz frequency bands, is about 1-1/4 miles in a mesh networking configuration in which each radio acts as a relay for other radios in the network, extending the range of an individual radio, Zavarelli said.
He said the Rangers will help verify the sustainability, usability and networking capabilities in the combat conditions of Afghanistan, essential feedback for a radio that the service would like to deploy widely. Soldier feedback "is vital to us" Zavarelli said. With the help of soldiers, JTRS can tweak the radios close to perfection, he added.