ITT Tactically Ahead

SP’s Show News (SP’s): What are the new technologies that ITT Communications can offer to India? What are your thrust areas and objectives and what are the current fields of research and development?

Dave Prater (Prater): ITT was the developer of the Tactical Internet, TI, for the US Army. Historically, ITT created the interfaces to legacy communications systems allowing them to use the IP-based TI through a SINCGARS product called the INC, Internet Controller. Since the inception of the TI, ITT has focused on Mobile AD-HOC networks; particularly waveforms. We are providers of both narrow band and wideband waveforms to both the US and UK Armies. We look forward to working with the Indian Defense establishment in developing a Network Centric Waveform which is unique to the Indian requirements. ITT is currently developing and refining waveforms and the radio hardware to run those waveforms.

SP’s: What has been your experience with the Indian defence market? What difficulties do you face in marketing your products to them?

Prater: The Defence market in India is a sophisticated market based on sound technical knowledge and a firm understanding of requirements needed for the defence of the country. For ITT, establishing a strong relationship with our Indian customer is essential to providing viable solutions that meet both current and future needs of India. Our desire is to be a value-added partner as India continues its modernization of the military by providing the most cost effective, technologically advanced and sustainable defence solution to combat their current and future threats.

SP’s: The JTRS SDR developed by ITT Communications is interoperable with UK’s Bowman waveform. It is an achievement that will benefit US-UK soldiers in a coalition force. However, what about communicating with other nationalities that form part of such coalition? Is research being done to evolve a universal waveform that would give such capability including communicating with legacy radios?

Prater: One strength of a Software Defined Radio is the ability to host different waveforms creating multiple communication opportunities for the user. ITT’s ability to host a U.S. waveform that is interoperable with a U.K. waveform demonstrates our system’s capability to host waveforms that could be used for communication between many nations.

Under an initiative by the Director of International Programs, Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JTRS), and in partnership with a number of other countries, a common/joint waveform is being discussed. This is a Government to Government initiative in which ITT has no direct involvement. Should this government initiative move forward, ITT’s experience in developing complex waveforms such as the Soldier Radio Waveform and the JTRS Bowman Waveform make us well-suited for the effort.

SP’s: How are robotics and artificial intelligence being exploited by ITT Communications? What are the products in which they have been programmed and what are the advantages would they provide in the battle zone?

Prater: ITT has worked with Robot manufacturers to provide the communications link to allow for remote untethered operation in demonstrations. ITT has been awarded the US contract to provide the waveform for US untethered operations. ITT plans to use related technologies in the development of a next generation network centric waveform for India.

SP’s: Single Channel Ground and Airborne System (SINGCARS) has been recently demonstrated by ITT Communications, successfully exchanging both Radio Based Combat Identification (RBCI) and Radio Based Situational Awareness data between airborne, vehicle based and soldier units. Can you elaborate on capabilities of the SINCGARS and whether these technologies are available for sale and transfer?

Prater: RBCI and RBSA have been shown to be an effective tool against fratricide in the U.S. SINCAGARS system. As India is not a SINCGARS user, we would recommend the RT-1947 A/U (GEN III) RBCI radio. This small radio is a standalone RBCI Receiver-Transmitter that provides RBCI capability for coalition partners. An RT-1947A/U implements the RBCI Interrogator, Responder and Range Extension (RE) Relay capabilities for dismounted and mounted forces and is compatible with the SINCGARS radio RBCI system. This low cost device is easily installed on new or existing vehicular platforms and is instrumental in the reduction of fratricide by accurately identifying platforms as friendly. After being initially setup, RT-1947A/U does not require operator interaction to perform the responder function. When interrogated, the response will be automatic and transparent to its users. This same RT is also capable of being integrated into an Indian Weapons Platform to perform the Interrogator RBCI function. RT-1947 also supports the RBSA function. However, Blue Force tracking is only available for your local network members. ITT has a license to market RBCI in India.

SP’s: ITT Communications has successfully integrated EGR support embedded GPS receiver into the SINCGARS tactical radio, enabling the system to provide position, navigation and timing for the warfighters. How can ITT Communications assist Indian Defence Forces incorporate such technology into their communications systems using the indigenous GPS under development?

Prater: ITT is able to offer Selective Availability Anti-spoofing, SAASM GPS, to Indian integrators. Whether they use SAASM or commercial grade GPS, ITT is also able to help the integrators with legacy waveform modifications to efficiently make use of the Situation Awareness data created by the embedded GPS.

SP’s: How is ITT Communications tackling the problem of bandwidth in the net centric environment? What has been the experience in fielding SINCARS and JTRS SDR and what are the compression technologies being exploited? What is the basic level of bandwidth that a modern force acquiring net-centric capability should be looking at?

Prater: ITT is at the forefront of bandwidth efficiency in the net centric environment. Our current generation of radio products, SpearNet, HCDR, and GNOMAD, provide the highest data throughput capabilities for mobile networks in the world today. This combination would allow the Indian Army to accomplish a triple-play (voice, video, and data) from the front line soldier all the way to headquarters.

SINCGARS is the most widely field combat radio in the world today with over 550,000 radios in service. SINCGARS was a fixture in the first U.S. tactical internet capability and successfully transferred data and situational awareness across the battlefield as part of the US digitization capability. ITT’s development of the Soldier Radio Waveform provides the next generation data transfer capability for the U.S. Department of Defense. ITT has a long history of designing network centric waveforms for the U.S. and International forces and understands the capabilities required to achieve net centricity.

Modern Network-Centric capabilities continue to increase their needs for more bandwidth. Armed Forces continue to develop new uses for data transfer capability and ITT expects this data need to continue. ITT expects a modern force to need well over 1 Mbps of capacity to acquire a network centric capability.

SP’s: The Indian Army is in the process of acquiring a Tactical Communications System (TCS) for the Tactical Battle Area (TBA). What can ITT Communications offer in this context? What are the state of the art technologies and devices presently available and what are likely to be developed in the 5-10 years?

Prater: As we understand TCS requirements, TCS will need Mbps of bandwidth. ITT provides a Global Network on-the-move Active Distribution (GNOMAD) Kuband satellite system. GNOMAD can extend the Indian Tactical Network to an on-the-move capability with data rates up to 2 Mbps. For the U.K. MoD, ITT developed the High Capacity Data Radio (HCDR). HCDR is a vehicular mounted communications system which is an IP-based MANET radio. HCDR is currently going through an important update. ITT also has the last-mile data communications through our dismounted soldier team member radio, SpearNet. SpearNet provides voice, video and data throughout its MANET network. A product and service not currently available in India, Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS) could be a communications aide to all Defence services in the future. DTCS offers extreme on-the-move communications over-the-horizon secure voice and position. DTCS requires no ground infrastructure and allows the soldier to communicate with all “local” DTCS radios within a 400 km radius or any DTCS radio anywhere on the globe. DTCS is a small 500g handheld radio.

SP’s: Cyber warfare is emerging as a very potent threat. What protection measures have been incorporated by ITT Communications in its products? Can you elaborate on these?

Prater: Cyber warfare is a serious threat. ITT is responding to this challenge thru the incorporation of encryption modules in all of our radio products.

SP’s: Present day conflict situations can have terrorists entering own communications networks. Is any research being done in the fields of speech and language recognition and processing and are there any plans to incorporate such technology into ITT Communications products?

Prater: ITT is not currently performing any research into the fields of speech and language recognition.