The Army’s decision to suspend the development of the Joint
Tactical Radio System is a necessary step to get the program on
track, said Lt. Gen. Joseph Yakovac, military deputy for Army acquisition.
Yakovac described JTRS as an important technology that the Defense
Department needs in the future. Flaws in the program are not technical,
but rather the result of a poorly conceived acquisition strategy,
Yakovac told an industry conference hosted by the Association of
the U.S. Army.
“The JTRS program, as it was developed, was an unachievable
goal, because it was looked upon as being a radio-replacement program,”
he said. “That is an inefficient way to manage resources.”
The focus should be on the networking technology, rather than the
radios, he said. Although the military services have many outdated
radios that need replacement, many systems are in good condition.
“If we had unlimited resources, we could give them all new
radios,” Yakovac said. “The radio-replacement philosophy
is what, I believe, caused this program problems. What we really
want from JTRS in the near term is to enhance networking, not replace
legacy radios. If you approach it from that standpoint, you have
a much different problem you need to solve.”
The Army will restructure the program, and will emphasize “wideband
networking,” rather than replacing radios. “We cannot
afford to throw away good stuff just to throw away good stuff,”
he said.
During the past several months, Yakovak’s office has been
working with the office of the secretary of defense on a new course
of action for JTRS. The goal, he said, is to “slow down the
program, reassess what we should have done a long time ago: a migration
strategy from what we want from JTRS over time.”
Eventually, the services will replace outdated radios, but, for
now, the priority should be to help small tactical units get connected
and share information in real time.
Under the JTRS program, the services are developing a “wideband
networking waveform,” which underpins the entire effort. WNW
is more important than any radio, Yakovac said.
Yakovac’s stinging criticism of the JTRS strategy has raised
hackles at the office of the assistant secretary of defense for
networks and information integration, which oversees the JTRS program.
A bureaucratic tug-of-war between the Army and NII is causing widespread
frustration, sources said.
JTRS was conceived as a family of high-capacity tactical radios
to provide both line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications,
video and data sharing among all the military services. The entire
program—valued at up to $5 billion—eventually would
replace more than 750,000 radios in the current military inventory.
The version known as “cluster 1,” intended for use
aboard Army helicopters and ground vehicles, is scheduled for a
major Defense Department review this summer. An Army technical review,
known as “early operational assessment,” is slated for
April. In January, however, the Army ordered the contractors to
suspend JTRS-related work for at least six weeks.
In addition to cluster 1, the Defense Department is funding clusters
2 and 5 for handheld radios, and an airborne-maritime cluster of
radios for use aboard ships and fixed-wing aircraft. Each cluster
is managed by program offices in the Army, Navy and Air Force. A
new joint organization eventually will manage all clusters, defense
officials said.