Lockheed Martin announces successful demonstration of AMF JTRS Small Airborne Radio at US Army exercise

Bringing the promise of secure, real-time, interoperable communications for warfighters one step closer to reality, the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS) has successfully transferred data and live streaming video over an internet-protocol enabled wideband networking waveform (WNW). During a recent US Army exercise at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., the AMF JTRS Small Airborne radio successfully transmitted data and video between multiple air and ground nodes. AMF JTRS is an internet protocol, software-defined network being developed by Lockheed Martin for joint forces.

"This exercise demonstrated the technical maturity of key AMF JTRS Small Airborne hardware elements in an installed, high temperature, rotary wing environment," said Mark Norris, vice president with Lockheed Martin's IS&GS-Defense.

For the exercise, an AMF JTRS Small Airborne radio was installed into a US Army UH-1 helicopter. The Small Airborne radio was then connected to a video camera via an Ethernet cable, establishing a multi-node link using WNW. After the UH-1 took flight, the radio sent live streaming video from an on-board camera to two separate ground-based radios. The resulting video was then displayed on a high resolution flat panel monitor in a Humvee. This demonstration was part of an incremental test approach that complements on-going lab-based testing to validate AMF JTRS hardware and software capability in an operationally-relevant environment. Lockheed Martin's AMF JTRS Team plans to expand on this demonstration by performing another "live fly" exercise in late 2010.

With its open architecture of software defined radio waveform technology, AMF JTRS will connect more than 100 US Navy, Army and Air Force platforms to provide a level of interoperability never before attained. With its capability defined digitally in software and signal processing handled by a programmable computer, AMF JTRS will interface with legacy radios, waveforms and systems. Waveforms under contract to be incorporated into the AMF JTRS network include WNW, Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW), Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), UHF SATCOM, Link-16, Single Channel Ground-Air Radio System, HAVEQUICK, VHF FM, UHF line-of-sight AM, and UHF FM/PSK/CPM. Over the program's lifetime, the plan is to incorporate a minimum of 28 waveforms into AMF JTRS.

The Lockheed Martin AMF JTRS team includes BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.

Source: Lockheed Martin

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