MCKINNEY, Texas -- During recent field exercises at Ft. Benning, Ga., Raytheon Company successfully demonstrated critical new mobile ad-hoc networking (MANET) capabilities - improvements in a network's ability to establish itself, in its ability to heal itself through data rate adaptation, and in its ability to fully integrate operations with legacy communications equipment via the network.

All three improvements support network-centric operations by assuring that soldiers have seamless communications.

Raytheon, in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Advanced Technology Office, developed these capabilities as part of the Future Combat Systems Communications (FCS C) program. They provide a MANET system designed to enable ground and airborne on-the-move (OTM) and on- the-halt network centric operations. The new MANET capabilities overcome current problems that soldiers encounter with long-range, mobile, networked communication and the ability to work with legacy radio systems.

Raytheon's self-forming communications solution establishes autonomous networks OTM and in real-time-from the moment that soldiers turn on their radios. Today, establishing network connections can take hours, and maintaining those connections at long distance can be very difficult.

Lt. Col. (P) Dion King, deputy program manager, Stryker Brigade Combat Team Combat, said, "The current networks in the field are not self-forming and need considerable effort to set up. Furthermore, when changes are needed, such as when units are shuffled or task organized, you have to go through all this again, which means more time, manpower and frustration."

The self-healing adaptive data rate technology solution allows soldiers to move in and out of a network without disrupting it. The solution continuously maximizes the data rate through the network based upon the quality of the link. This enables a network to be available and to remain connected across larger distances.

The interoperability milestone, a key attribute of FCS C, co-developed by Raytheon and CenGen, Inc., was demonstrated through a Transformational Communications Architecture offering interoperability among various current and future communications systems. These include the Command Post of the Future, Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol, the ITT Soldier Radio, the Enhanced Position Location Reporting Systems, HAVEQUICK I/II (PRC-117), the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System and the High Frequency MAN-PACK Radio. The FCS C system supports both current and legacy radio systems without physical changes to those systems, while providing an interoperable bridge to the next generation of Wideband Networking Waveform-like networks.

"A major priority of the Joint Tactical Radio Systems program is to bring MANET to the tactical edge of the battlefield," said Jerry Powlen, vice president of Raytheon Integrated Communication Systems. "We understand how critically important this is to mission execution, and we can provide that capability today."

Raytheon
14.02.2006