SAN DIEGO – US Navy ship board communications experts want General Dynamics Corp. to provide AN/USC-61(C) marine radios to enable Navy surface warships and submarines to communicate line-of-sight with high frequency (HF), ultrahigh frequency (UHF), UHF satellite communication (SATCOM), and very high frequency (VHF) radio bands.
Officials from the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR) in San Diego announced a $49.9 million order Monday to General Dynamics Mission Systems in Scottsdale, Ariz., to build AN/USC-61(C) digital modular radio (DMR) systems.
The contract includes high frequency distribution amplifier components and engineering services for continued operation and maintenance of the marine radio communication system.
The DMR is a modular, software-reprogrammable shipboard radio system with embedded cryptography that provides all the radio frequency (RF) to baseband and baseband to RF conversion functions required for US Navy line-of-sight, beyond-line-of-sight, and satellite communications systems.
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This contract modification required General Dynamics engineers to perform new radio communications requirements that were not anticipated in the original contract. NAVWAR presented the order on behalf of the Navy’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computing and Intelligence (PEO C4I) in San Diego.
AN/USC-61(C) is marine software defined radio (SDR) this became the standard for the US military. The compact, multi-channel DMR provides several different waveforms and multiple levels of information security for voice and data communications.
The radio is on NSA Type 1 encryption; built-in red/black baseband switching and routing; joint implementation of the site; reduced labor requirements; single control point for HF/VHF/UHF/SATCOM radio communications; and built-in test (BIT).
Software-defined radio waves are computer programs that allow SDR-enabled radios to operate on different frequency bands with different encryption and cybersecurity features. The AN/USC-61(C) operates on surface ships, submarines, and other Navy military platforms using frequencies from 2 MHz to 2 GHz.
General Dynamics has certified the DMR to transmit secure voice and data at multiple independent security levels (MILS) over HF, VHF, UHF and SATCOM channels and to withstand the effects of electromagnetic interference and other harsh operating conditions.
The DMR is also certified by the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) to meet US Government MIL-STD-188-181B/182A/183A requirements for UHF SATCOM. General Dynamics is building the AN/USC-61(C) using open architecture standards.
Under this order, General Dynamics will perform the work in Scottsdale, Arizona, and should be completed by December 2022. For more information, contact General Dynamics Mission Systems online at https://gdmissionsystems.comor NAVWAR of www.navwar.navy.mil.
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