Ground Tactical Radios : Spreading the Word

Ever heard of the Battle of Marathon that took place between Greece and Persia in 490 BC? The one where a messenger named Pheidippides had to run ~26 miles, to deliver the news of victory, to the city of Athens?

How about WW-I? The one during which, soldiers had to carry radios weighing anywhere between 18 to 25 kilograms on their backs, just to maintain a communication link with the base station, or other units.

From the era of having to run on foot, for delivering messages, to a time when soldiers can securely communicate over several miles in a matter of seconds using a hand-held device, military communication devices have seen a fair share of development and the era of smoke signals, semaphores, etc. in military communication has finally been brought to an end by tactical radios.

The use of tactical radios in the military has a history that dates back to as early as WW-I and although the operating principles have remained consistent, tactical radios have themselves become much more advanced since their initial days of application. From spark transmitters(used during WW-I) that required horses for getting transported to the battlefield, to hand-held devices that barely weigh half a kilogram, tactical radios have penetrated all three horizons of warfare i.e. ground, marine, and airborne.

Though equally important in land, marine, and airborne operations, the demand generated for tactical radios is higher from the ground forces as compared to the other two, which can be attributed to the following factors. Firstly, for every major military power except the US, the number of armed personnel in the Army is several orders higher than that of the Navy and the Airforce. Secondly, in times both present and the past, land forces have had to engage in war-like events, more frequently than the other two fronts.

The difference in demand can also be better understood by looking at some numbers from a report on ground tactical radios market, published by Straview Research, which states that more than 65% of the demand for tactical radios in terms of volume, comes from ground-based platforms.

Another reason why numbers are higher for ground-based platforms is because ground tactical radios can also have fixed communication systems installed at different base stations on land, as opposed to airborne and naval applications where the system must either be deployed either in a vessel or an aircraft.

The Frequency Palette for Tactical Radio:

Despite the differences in operational requirements, the preferred band for all three platforms of tactical radio is the VHF/UHF band. As known already, the radio spectrum ranges from as low as - .003MHz (Very Low Frequency - VLF) to as high as – 300,000 MHz (Extra High Frequency - EHF), and is segmented into several different frequency bands.

[Fig. 1: Radio spectrum and preferred bands for tactical radios]

Right in the middle of this spectrum are the high frequency (HF -3 - 30 MHz), very high frequency (VHF - 30 - 300 MHz), and ultra-high frequency (UHF - 300 - 3,000 MHz) bands, which are also the three most common bands used in tactical radios

Each of the suitable bands for tactical radio communication has its own perks. HF radios, for example, are vital for base stations communicating with each other over vast distances in the hundreds to 1000s of kilometers.

Despite the ability to operate over the longest distance among the suitable bands, the HF band is not the preferred choice for ground-based tactical radio operations because of a number of reasons.

Since ground-to-ground tactical operations are usually limited to a handful of closely situated units, Line-Of-Sight communication is considered more reliable. Even for longer-range applications like ground-to-air communication, HF waves are not preferred because they are more susceptible to atmospheric absorption.

[Refer to - Fig. 2: VHF/UHF and HF operations]

The VHF/UHF band on the other hand, though considered ideal for short-to-medium range operations, prevails because of its ability to operate in the Line-Of-Sight. Not to mention, the shorter wavelengths also make them less vulnerable to induced interference and jamming, especially when combined with Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS) methods.

The prevalence of the VHF/UHF bands is so high among tactical radio systems that more than 70% of the tactical radio equipment are designed to operate in this band itself.

There are however, a few downsides to choosing VHF/UHF waves as well and one of the most problematic of them is reduced battery performance. The higher the frequency, the more intense the energy usage and this implies that VHF/UHF devices are prone to have a shorter battery life as compared to HF devices.

Propagating Towards Improved Capabilities:

Innovations and research in the field of defense are ceaseless. Especially, when we are talking about equipment as crucial as tactical radios, which are responsible for more or less the overall communication on a battlefield, the price for outdated technology might be as high as a lost battle.

Thus, with the aim of providing armed personnel with the most reliable and secure equipment, leading defense contractors are currently focusing on the following areas:

1. Software Defined Radios(SDRs): To make tactical radios even more flexible and adaptable to changing mission requirements, the military has been implementing software to process various modulations, demodulation, and decoding, etc. for several decades in the form of ‘Software-Defined Radios’ SDRs. As a result, SDRs have now become very commonly used unlike before, owing to their high-performance, low-cost hardware and software, reduced size, increased bandwidth, and much more. Leading economies like the US are aware of such innovations and have been investing heavily to maintain an up-to-date arsenal.
   For instance, the US Army awarded an indefinite delivery (indefinite quantity) for the new Combat Net Radio (CNR) to L3 Harris Technologies in 2022, to modernize and secure the army’s network.
2. Integrated Tactical Networks (ITN): The transmission of data and communications over the war fields will see a step-change with the introduction of Integrated Tactical Networks (ITN).
   The function of ITNs is to incorporate the current tactical network environment with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components and transport capabilities, which will then provide numerous vital benefits to military forces, including improved situational awareness, decision-making, and survivability.
   Among the early adopters of this technology, is the US Army that is building its ITN by planning to start integrating its existing enterprise network with other networks (tactical), to create a unified network. The network is expected to be operational by 2025.
    
3. Size, weight, and power(SWaP) modifications:  The ongoing need for reduced size, weight, and power is driving the development of innovative tactical radios used on the battlefield. These radios demand increased functionality in smaller packages, even in body-worn equipment, on-field IoT sensors, or wireless sensors on unmanned aerial or ground vehicles.
    

One recent example of such equipment is the L3 Harris AN/PRC-158 radio, which is compact, powerful, and modular, covering the full 30-2500 MHz frequency range and is 30% smaller than similar products, states the group.

1. Other disruptions: Just like moving fast requires trust, moving forward requires disruption. It wouldn’t be wrong in saying that disruptive technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Digital Twins, etc. are shaping the future of defense systems as well. Governments are adapting these technologies to develop AI-powered radios and digital twins of radio systems. Giants like L3Harris, Thales, etc. are already developing AI and digital-twin-technology integrated radios. 5G technology is another such disruption. Though the applications of 5G in the military are not well pronounced yet; the advent of 5G technology certainly opens many doors.

It should also be noted that in terms of both military expenditures, as well as the pace of adapting new and advanced technologies, the US is far ahead of all other countries. The gap is so huge that for the year 2022, the US military expenditure($877 bn) alone, is more than the expenditure of the next top 9 countries combined.

The presence of leading tactical radio manufacturers like L3 Harris Technologies and Collins Aerospace also reduces its dependency on other countries. Not just that, but the US has already launched several initiatives for the modernization of radio systems in the field of defense; like the Special Operations Forces(SOF) Tactical Communications initiative and the C3(Command, Control, and Communications) Modernization Strategy, by the Department of Defense.

Reports also suggest that the US DoD is likely to purchase over 100,000 two-channel leader Radios and 65,000 HMS Manpack radios, worth US$ 16 billion, in the coming decade and that the US currently owns >40% of the ground tactical radios market.

What Do the Signals Suggest of the Future?

Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a lot of countries have gone on high alert. The possibility of war has forced everyone’s hand into increasing their annual defense expenditures and as a result, in 2022, global military expenditures saw an all-time high of $2.2 trillion.

Communication equipment such as tactical radios, being at the core of any country’s military capabilities, are bound to witness uninterrupted growth in the coming times as the world enhances its military capabilities.

While SDRs and disruptive technologies like 5G will unlock advancements in the field; In a time when armed forces across the world are focusing as much on electronic warfare techniques as they are on conventional warfare methods, one of the next biggest challenges for defense manufacturers will be to develop Electronic Counter Measure(ECM) immune communication systems.  

Nonetheless, the journey of ensuring proper connectivity of the armed forces on the modern battlefield will be quite an interesting one to observe.

Over and out!

Authored by Stratview Research, published by MilSat Magazine.