Additional orders for AMS JTRS software-defined radios for military manned and unmanned aircraft received by Lockheed Martin
SAN DIEGO, 12 May 2010. U.S. Army and Air Force leaders are increasing the numbers of Airborne, Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio Systems (AMF JTRS) they are purchasing from the Lockheed Martin Corp. Information Systems & Global Services-Defense segment in San Diego.
The company has received additional contract options AMF JTRS software-defined radio -- an encrypted Internet-Protocol network that will provide joint forces with seamless, secure, wideband mobile military radio communications -- Lockheed Martin announced Tuesday.
This equipment is for the first aircraft set to receive AMF JTRS: the AH-64D Apache, CH-47D Chinook, and UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters; Air Force C-130 AMP and AC-130U fixed wing aircraft; and the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The Lockheed Martin team includes BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.
The Lockheed Martin team will produce more than 150 pieces of additional equipment, including pre-production Small Airborne radio models, management & control units, power amplifiers and radio ancillaries. To date, Lockheed Martin has received about $35 million in contract options for additional AMF JTRS equipment.
When fielded, AMF JTRS will link more than 100 platforms where no communications infrastructure previously existed, company officials say. Since its capability is defined digitally in software and signal processing is handled by a programmable computer, AMF JTRS can interface with legacy radios, waveforms, and systems.
Waveforms to be integrated into the AMF JTRS network include Wideband Networking Waveform, Soldier Radio Waveform, Mobile User Objective System, UHF SATCOM, Link-16, Single Channel Ground-Air Radio System (SINCGARS), HAVEQUICK I/II, VHF FM, UHF line-of-sight AM, and UHF FM/PSK/CPM. Over the program's lifetime, the plan is to incorporate a minimum of 28 waveforms into AMF JTRS.
AMF JTRS will bring an internet-like capability to warfighters, and near instant transmission of voice, data, and video anywhere in the mobile battlefield.
For more information contact Lockheed Martin online at www.lockheedmartin.com.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
