16 Oct 02. The U.S. Army has awarded ITT Industries Aerospace/Communications Division $20.2m in new orders for its Advanced Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS). Under terms of the order, ITT will produce radios and ancillary devices for two different nations under the U.S. government’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, as well as spares and engineering services for the U.S. government.
ITT developed SINCGARS with the U.S. Army, and has produced four generations of the combat net radios with more than 250,000 units operating around the world. Each new generation of SINCGARS is the result of a carefully planned evolution of enhancements that combine data, voice and geolocation information with networking capability. Future enhancements include simultaneous voice and data operations.
Current SINCGARS models serve as the linchpin of the U.S. Army’s Tactical Internet and SINCGARS technology is at the heart of the U.K. Bowman tactical communications system set to be fielded in 2004. Over a dozen countries field SINCGARS systems which are sold internationally as the Advanced Tactical Communications System.
Among the many features offered to soldiers within the current generation of SINCGARS (the ASIP and ATCS models now in production) is the proprietary ESIP waveform that improves voice and retransmission performance along with digital signal processing that permits the radio to upgrade through software updates. The radios, and ancillary devices, ordered under FMS will be used in air defense as well as infantry applications.
ITT produces SINCGARS and ADR+ combat net radios for the U.S. and U.K., Mercury Wideband Networking Radios for several nations and most recently Small Unit Operations and Situational Awareness (SUO-SAS) Technology for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). SUO-SAS is currently being evaluated as a core technology for the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems.
ITT Industries, Inc. (http://www.itt.com) supplies advanced technology products and services in key markets including: electronic interconnects and switches; defense communication, opto-electronics, information technology and services; fluid and water management and specialty products.
Comment: This is good news for SINGARS and confirms the US and foreign armies’ support for the system and its derivatives. The company will soon commence deliveries of its radios and networking systems to the British Army’s BOWMAN programme. BATTLESPACE publishes an interview with Lou Dollive, President and General manager of ITT, with Scott Gourley in this month’s C4ISTAR issue.