Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

[Marin David Condic]

In doing some research into other things, I bumped into the Joint 
Tactical Radio System (JTRS). This appears to be a relatively new 
initiative by the DoD and from what I can gather, they seem to want to 
open it up to some extent to commercial applications.

Given that its all pretty new stuff, it looks like an opportunity for 
Ada to be a player in an emerging market - or at least a big DoD 
project. Does anybody know anything about the programming language(s) 
being used to develop versions of this radio? It looks like it is 
intended to have some sort of underlying OS and an API and then "radio 
apps" can be written to go on top of this and reconfigure the unit to 
different uses.

Google turns up lots of stuff, but most of what I can find is not of a 
"Tutorial" nature. (Lots of stuff written in government-programese that 
talks about how wonderful its going to be one day.) It really does look 
like an opportunity for Ada if it hasn't already been locked up in some 
other language because of the possibility of writing numerous 
application programs for something relatively new in the world. Does 
anybody know much about this?

MDC
-- 
======================================================================
Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm

Send Replies To: m   o   d   c @ a   m   o   g
                    c   n   i       c   .   r

     "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has
      been found difficult; and left untried."

         --  G. K. Chesterton
======================================================================

Re: Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

[Jerry Petrey]

Marin David Condic wrote:

> In doing some research into other things, I bumped into the Joint
> Tactical Radio System (JTRS). This appears to be a relatively new
> initiative by the DoD and from what I can gather, they seem to want to
> open it up to some extent to commercial applications.
>
> Given that its all pretty new stuff, it looks like an opportunity for
> Ada to be a player in an emerging market - or at least a big DoD
> project. Does anybody know anything about the programming language(s)
> being used to develop versions of this radio? It looks like it is
> intended to have some sort of underlying OS and an API and then "radio
> apps" can be written to go on top of this and reconfigure the unit to
> different uses.
>
> Google turns up lots of stuff, but most of what I can find is not of a
> "Tutorial" nature. (Lots of stuff written in government-programese that
> talks about how wonderful its going to be one day.) It really does look
> like an opportunity for Ada if it hasn't already been locked up in some
> other language because of the possibility of writing numerous
> application programs for something relatively new in the world. Does
> anybody know much about this?
>
> MDC
>

Marin,

We have just begun to work with JTRS on my project but Raytheon overall has
been heavily involved with it for some time.
Definitely some work is being done in Ada.  The Army in Huntsville has done
some good work on VMF (Variable Format Messages) handling software in Ada that
they will share with DOD contractors.  We are looking at it to support some
upcoming demos.
I agree with you that it is a good place for Ada to get a foothold.

Jerry
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- Jerry Petrey, - GNC Software Engineer, Raytheon Missile Systems
--
-- NOTE: please perform appendectomy on email address before replying
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

[Marin David Condic]

When you start googling this up, you see all sorts of players involved. 
General Dynamics (because of the Future Combat System), Harris, 
Motorola, etc. It sounds vaguely similar to technology being used in 
cell phones. I wish I could turn up some resources that discuss it on a 
more technical level. I can't figure out how easy or hard it would be 
for a small group of entrepeneurs to develop something that might play 
in that field - and possibly give Ada a boost in the process. Qualcomm 
got started that way....

MDC

Jerry Petrey wrote:
> 
> We have just begun to work with JTRS on my project but Raytheon overall has
> been heavily involved with it for some time.
> Definitely some work is being done in Ada.  The Army in Huntsville has done
> some good work on VMF (Variable Format Messages) handling software in Ada that
> they will share with DOD contractors.  We are looking at it to support some
> upcoming demos.
> I agree with you that it is a good place for Ada to get a foothold.
> 


-- 
======================================================================
Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm

Send Replies To: m   o   d   c @ a   m   o   g
                    c   n   i       c   .   r

     "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has
      been found difficult; and left untried."

         --  G. K. Chesterton
======================================================================

Re: Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

[Jeffrey Carter]

Marin David Condic wrote:
> In doing some research into other things, I bumped into the Joint 
> Tactical Radio System (JTRS). This appears to be a relatively new 
> initiative by the DoD and from what I can gather, they seem to want to 
> open it up to some extent to commercial applications.

I worked in the late 1990s on a project called JCIT (I don't remember 
what it stood for anymore). It was a SW radio project done in Ada. The 
project was canceled for non-technical reasons. I don't know if any of 
that code is being reused on JTRS. Probably not, since doing so would 
make sense.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"No one is to stone anyone until I blow this whistle,
do you understand? Even--and I want to make this
absolutely clear--even if they do say, 'Jehovah.'"
Monty Python's Life of Brian
74

Re: Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <4ZZue.12291$eM6.11698@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net>, Marin David Condic <nobody@noplace.com> writes:
> In doing some research into other things, I bumped into the Joint 
> Tactical Radio System (JTRS). This appears to be a relatively new 
> initiative by the DoD and from what I can gather, they seem to want to 
> open it up to some extent to commercial applications.
> 
> Given that its all pretty new stuff, it looks like an opportunity for 
> Ada to be a player in an emerging market - or at least a big DoD 
> project. Does anybody know anything about the programming language(s) 
> being used to develop versions of this radio? It looks like it is 
> intended to have some sort of underlying OS and an API and then "radio 
> apps" can be written to go on top of this and reconfigure the unit to 
> different uses.
> 
> Google turns up lots of stuff, but most of what I can find is not of a 
> "Tutorial" nature. (Lots of stuff written in government-programese that 
> talks about how wonderful its going to be one day.)

since the above was posted, there has been some non-governmentese posted,
but not quite favorable:

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RISKS-LIST: Risks-Forum Digest  Sunday 10 July 2005  Volume 23 : Issue 93

ACM FORUM ON RISKS TO THE PUBLIC IN COMPUTERS AND RELATED SYSTEMS (comp.risks)
Peter G. Neumann, moderator, chmn ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy


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Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2005 18:32:46 +0100 (BST)
From: Pete Mellor <pm@csr.city.ac.uk>
Subject: Future Combat Systems procurement problems: GAO report

Dawn S. Onley, GAO: Army's FCS initiative faces uncertain future, 
Government Computer News, 8 Jul 2005

The major communications programs that will support the Army's
transformational Future Combat Systems initiative are in jeopardy of failing
to meet technical challenges and an accelerated schedule, according to the
Government Accountability Office.  GAO found that each of the communications
pillars of the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program - two Joint
Tactical Radio System (JTRS) clusters, the Warfighter Information
Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program and the System of Systems Common Operating
Environment (SOSCOE) - would likely fail to meet aggressive schedules due to
immature technologies.

"As currently structured, the JTRS, WIN-T and SOSCOE programs are at risk of
not delivering intended capabilities when needed, particularly for the first
spiral of FCS," according to GAO. "They continue to struggle to meet an
ambitious set of user requirements, steep technical challenges and stringent
time frames."

FCS is designed to link 18 manned and unmanned weapons systems via a common
computer network known as WIN-T and the System of Systems Common Operating
Environment.

The Army restructured its FCS program last year into spirals, with 
officials announcing the first spiral would happen in fiscal 2008. But GAO 
said the first spiral may not demonstrate key networking capabilities.

GAO found the FCS program faces network, developmental and financial 
challenges that continue to slow progress. FCS' information network is 
dependent on the success of JTRS, WIN-T and SOSCOE - programs that are not 
included in FCS costs.

"Because JTRS, WIN-T and SOSCOE all rely on significant advances in 
current technologies and capabilities and must be fully integrated to 
realize FCS, there are substantial risks to this effort," wrote Paul L. 
Francis, GAO's director of acquisition and sourcing management, in the 
report.

For the full article, with a link to the original GAO report, see: 
  http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/36302-1.html

Peter Mellor, Centre for Software Reliability, City University, 
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB  +44 (0)20 7040 8422

------------------------------

Re: Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS)

[Marin David Condic]

It could be because they accelerated the schedule dramatically. 
Originally FCS was supposed to be fielded somewhere about 2015. I seem 
to have hit some info indicating it got pulled forward to 2008. You can 
accelerate some R&D by throwing gobs of money at it, but not always. 
Technological breakthroughs needed for JTRS or WIN-T might not be the 
kind of thing you can rush.

Still, since JTRS seems to be an intensively software kind of thing and 
the type of thing that once defined, becomes a platform for a bunch of 
other things, it would be a shame if the core of it got built in C (or 
something else) and left Ada as an "Also Ran". The language used to 
implement the infrastructure is tough to supplant on the add-ons once it 
gets established. That's why I thought it would be an important deal for 
Ada to win.

MDC

Larry Kilgallen wrote:
> 
> 
> since the above was posted, there has been some non-governmentese posted,
> but not quite favorable:
> 

-- 
======================================================================
Marin David Condic
I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
My project is: http://www.jsf.mil/NSFrames.htm

Send Replies To: m   o   d   c @ a   m   o   g
                    c   n   i       c   .   r

     "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has
      been found difficult; and left untried."

         --  G. K. Chesterton
======================================================================