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Defense

Europe Looks to US to Boost Military Logistics with SDR

Contributor:  IDGA Editorial Staff
Posted:  10/28/2009  12:00:00 AM EDT  |  0

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Tags:   Military Logistics | SDR

In 2006, the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the European Commission came together to work on interoperability of communications between forces from different nationalities as well as between military and civil operators, all with the aim of improving military logistics across the continent and abroad.
 
The EDA followed the lead of the US military in working towards developing software defined radio (SDR) technologies, which will replace old equipment with a fully interoperable and reconfigurable system. Another aim of the project was to promote European technical and industrial capacity of strategic importance in delivering enhanced military logistics capabilities.
 
In November of that year, five EDA member states, Finland, France, Italy, Spain and Sweden announced an ad-hoc joint research project, which was titled European Secure Software Defined Radio (ESSOR) and estimated to be worth €100 million. Finland then joined the scheme in 2007.
 
European Projects
 
Each of these countries are focusing on developing technology for the medium-term, while a related EDA study is centred on specific military logistics SDR requirements for the longer term.
 
The products being developed in the ESSOR project are based on the software communication architecture (SCA) originally developed in the United States as part of the Joint Program Executive Office (JPEO) for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) scheme.
 
Last December, Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en Matière d'Armement, which manages collaborative European armament and technology demonstrator programmes through their life cycle, took over the control of the ESSOR project, while the EDA remains the overarching link between the Commission, participating countries and other stakeholders.
 
The European Commission is investing money in the ESSOR project under the European Security and Research Programme for civil SDR use. In April this year, software defined radio stakeholders met at the EDA in Brussels to discuss the ongoing efforts towards improving military logistics with these technological developments.
 
Military Logistics and Civilian Benefits
 
At the three-day meeting, the benefits of SDR for both civilian use and military logistics were highlighted and this has been the subject of a Frost and Sullivan report.
 
The research company's Aerospace and Defense Group highlighted a shift in the adoption of new technologies for European first responders, which includes law enforcement, fire fighting services and emergency medical teams. As with the military logistics efforts, these organisations are aiming to link legacy systems with next-generation technology.
 
"Communications technology and services constitute the essential backbone for first responders," said Major Sabbir Ahmed, a research analyst at Frost and Sullivan.
 
"In today's unpredictable social environment, wherein the services of first responders are invaluable, communication robustness is of paramount importance. Interoperable and dependable communication is the need of the hour," he added.
 
According to Frost and Sullivan, limited budgets are threatening the implementation of programmes and the organisation called on governments to address this issue, as well as working on military logistics efforts.
 
Canadian Contributions
 
Similarly, the Canadian military has also been working on its own SDR project to replace old satellite communications terminals with a new reconfigurable platform capable of supporting multiple communication types and therefore enhancing military logistics.
 
Canada's scheme—the Advanced SatCom Technology Demonstration Project —will also use the SCA developed by the US JTRS scheme and will create two prototype reconfigurable SCA-compliant terminals and two SCA-compliant SatCom waveforms, as well as an Intelsat waveform demonstrated over the Anik satellite and a frequency-hopped anti-jam waveform.
 
The Communications Research Centre and its Advanced Radio System Group, in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Canada, has helped to develop the US military's SCA. Among the contributions it has made is the submission of over 20 change proposals to the JPEO JTRS to enhance SCA specification.
 
Canadian researchers have also developed and tested an SCA-enabled radio demonstrator, supporting a digital signal processor-based implementation and carried out the first public demonstration of a commercial SCA-enabled and digital audio broadcast waveforms.


IDGA Editorial Staff Contributor:   IDGA Editorial Staff

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