US Army seeking simultaneous transmit and receive tactical radios

February 1, 2021

from Carlo Munoz

The U.S. military is looking for industry proposals to develop a new software-defined tactical radio capable of transmitting and receiving voice and data simultaneously in a “congested, contested and denied environment,” according to a service request.

The Agency’s Broad Communication (BAA), issued by the Small Business Innovation Research Directorate (SBIR) on January 27, 2021, is designed to generate commercially ready solutions (COTS) for simultaneous handover and reception of the military with the same frequency (SF-STAR) software defined radio (SDR). The radio systems, as envisaged, will be able to operate on the same frequency as long as they transmit and receive voice and data from external sources, and can perform network operations in a congested, contested and denied environment, the BAA said.

The SF-STAR capability sought by service managers will not replace the current list of SDR’s military platforms with suppression capabilities for neighboring channels, but rather provide an alternative to an SDR system that can suppress “inside the channel [and] external enemy intervention while SF-STAR is operating simultaneously, ”according to BAA. The proposed SF-STAR-capable SD system will also be effective in “suppressing friendly interference, whether co-located on the same platform or in the common presence of other potential interference sources during SF-STAR execution. “He added.

The January 27 BAA request comes a month after U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) officials issued their own request to the industry seeking support for the development of advanced software-defined radios, digital receivers and antennas for secure data transmission during forwarding operations.