By John Keller

SAN DIEGO, 11 March 2008. The U.S. military's Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program is seeking to stand traditional defense and aerospace procurement on its head by introducing industry competition from design through manufacturing at unprecedented levels.

"We will open up the business space to get more radios out to the warfighter," said Howard Pace, a senior JTRS program director in the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in an address this afternoon at the Military & Aerospace Electronics Forum (MAEF) conference and trade show in San Diego. The MAEF is sponsored by Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine.

"We will evolve this [JTRS] architecture over time so all vendors can play," Pace told MAEF attendees. "We want multiple sources in production, so we can walk away from vendors if necessary, and to be able to re-compete contracts."

Pace told the conference that JTRS program managers want to consider competing different levels of development of the various models of JTRS radios, as well as to investigate new ways of sharing and competing for JTRS radio manufacturing and support.

"If you don't have a piece of the JTRS pie now, you are not out of the market," Pace told the conference. "You can participate." Pace is deputy joint program executive officer for the JTRS program.

One of the newest forms of the JTRS is what Pace calls a low-cost "rifleman's radio," which he says will have voice capability, and will be able to share its position on the JTRS network. This radio "will be inexpensive enough for every warfighter," Pace says. "We are getting down to the foxhole level."

JTRS development has not been without its challenges, Pace explains. In addition to technical difficulties in the program's early stages, he says certification from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has been difficult and slow.

"Anything in the tactical battlespace has to be NSA certified, and there is nothing out there as close to that as the equipment we are developing for the JTRS program," Pace said.