US Army seeks graceful migration from SINCGARS
25 January 2021
by Carlo Munoz
US Army leaders are moving forward with evaluating options for an eventual replacement of the service’s Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) in the next three years, in favour of systems that are more mobile, easier to encrypt, and capable of integrating into the army’s larger networked communication modernisation initiative under the Integrated Tactical Network (ITN).
The SINCGARS replacement effort kicked off when service leaders from Army Program Executive Office Command, Control, and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T) issued a request for information (RFI) in October 2020 seeking technology upgrades to legacy radio systems or development of new radio programmes. Since then, army engineers have been evaluating options submitted under the RFI, Program Executive Officer for C3T Army Brigadier General Robert Collins said.
st Brigade and had planned extensive field tests in 2020. But the Airborne is the Army’s global rapid-response force, and the 1
st Brigade had two unscheduled deployments last year: one to the Mideast after US drones killed Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and sparked a regional crisis, the other to Washington, DC after police killed George Floyd and set of nationwide protests.
Those real-world crises, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, forced the Army to postpone some tests and downsize others from a full brigade to just part of one. That’s why the Pentagon’s independent Director of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) urged the Army to slow down in its annual report for 2020, submitted to Congress on Jan. 13.
Pentagon weapons tester wants to delay fielding of new Army tactical network tools January 15 1st. Lt. Michael Austin, platoon leader for Attack Co., 1-503rd Inf. Regt., 173rd Airborne Brigade, uses the Nett Warrior End User Device to report information to his company commander through the integrated tactical network (ITN) during a live-fire exercise in Grafenwoehr, Germany, in 2018. The exercise helped inform ITN basis of issue and inform ITN design decisions. (Spc. Joshua Cofield/U.S. Army) WASHINGTON The U.S. Department of Defense’s weapons tester recommended that the Army delay fielding decisions for radios and other communications gear from its most recent integrated tactical network toolset until a brigade has a chance to test them fully in March.
L3Harris Technologies Awarded Third LRIP Order on Radio Contract
L3Harris Technologies has received a $57 million competitive award for its Falcon IV® AN/PRC-163 two-channel handheld radios, along with related equipment and services, as part of the U.S. Army’s two-channel Leader radio IDIQ contract. Delivery is expected to begin in early 2021.
The versatile AN/PRC-163 enables warfighters to share information up and down the chain of command, integrating voice and data across the Army’s Integrated Tactical Network (ITN). The radio enables robust command and control by integrating seamlessly into soldier systems such as the Army’s Nett Warrior and Enhanced Night Vision Goggle – Binocular (ENVG-B) programs.