Global network will redefine how the Army fights, vice chief says

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli told Senate lawmakers Tuesday software-based tactical radios are the military version of smartphones, a platform on which to build competitive and inexpensive applications to support battlefield communications.

The Defense Department has spent the past 13 years developing the Joint Tactical Radio System, which uses software waveforms to determine the frequencies and data rates of various classes of radios. Defense owns that software, a fact that will help drive down purchase costs, Chiarelli said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

In response to a question from Airland Subcommittee ranking member Scott Brown, R-Mass., Chiarelli said JTRS software provides the Army with an operating environment akin to that of Android or iPhone smartphones on which it can build applications on the battlefield.

General Dynamics is developing JTRS handheld and manpack radios and Brown asked Chiarelli if this would give the company an advantage in future competitions. Chiarelli answered that since the government owned the software, this would allow the Army to run a competition for the "cheapest box." Brown deflected Chiarelli's reply, and said he believed JTRS developers will have a competitive advantage in future competitions.

In his prepared testimony, Chiarelli said the service's battlefield intelligence system, or Distributed Common Ground System-Army, was installed last month in Afghanistan, pulling data from a cloud architecture.

He also said the Army is developing the Joint Battle Command-Platforms system -- the next generation of the Force Battle Command Brigade and Below system, which tracks hostile and friendly forces on the battlefield. The new system will provide a "tenfold increase in data throughput," he said.

Chiarelli said the Army plans to field 31 sets of its battlefield backbone communications network in 2011 and 25 sets next year. The Warfighter Information Network-Tactical is equipped with Ka-band satellite receivers and will allow tactical units to transmit and receive over the Defense-owned wideband global satellite constellation rather than leased commercial satellites.

The Army's global network is the service's top modernization priority, Chiarelli said, an assertion he has made repeatedly.

"The network represents the centerpiece of Army modernization. Ultimately, it will connect leaders and soldiers at all levels, at every echelon of command, in any formation, and across the entire team with the right information quickly and seamlessly. In doing so, it will make our various formations more lethal, faster and survivable. It will literally redefine how we fight," Chiarelli said.