Rifleman Radio and GD300 Go to Afghanistan

New Army Radio Passes Ranger Combat Test

by Matthew Cox on February 16, 2012 · 56 COMMENTS



It may not be long before infantrymen on foot can track their buddies’ positions on ruggedized smartphones. The Army’s best bet for achieving this battlefield milestone lies in its new Rifleman Radio. Units from the 75th Ranger Regiment were pleased with the performance of the handheld Joint Tactical Radio System during a recent battlefield evaluation in Afghanistan.

The Rangers spent a lot of time using the radios and “clearly had a significant level of confidence” in the system. Rangers liked the size, weight and power of the Rifleman Radio, which provided a battery life of up to ten hours and increased the units’ ability to communicate despite obstacles such as buildings and nearby terrain, according to Army officials.

The Rifleman Radio, made by General Dynamics C4 Systems, was developed as part of the Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Fit, or HMS program. HMS radios are designed around the Army’s future tactical network strategy to create secure tactical networks without the logistical nightmare of a tower-based antenna infrastructure.

This seems to tie into the Army’s recent work with with battlefield smartphones. Ranger units involved in the evaluation used the Rifleman Radio with the Android-based GD300 smartphone.

Hooking a smartphone up to the Rifleman Radio gives soldiers the ability to send and receive emails,
view maps and watch icons on a digital map that represent the locations of their fellow soldiers. The concept came out of the Army’s long-gestating Land Warrior and Nett Warrior programs.

Stryker units have deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan with Land Warrior’s computerized command and control ensemble, but at 10 pounds it proved too heavy for combat. By comparison, the Rifleman Radio weighs 1.7 pounds with its battery. The GD300 weighs another 8 ounces.

The Army plans to field the Rifleman Radio sometime in 2013. The future is not as certain for the GD300, but Army officials are considering the device for fielding in 2013 as well.

So what do you think — too techy for grunts? Unnecessary on the battlefield? Before you answer that, try using an iPhone for a while and then try to go back to a regular cell phone.

General Dynamics Rifleman Radio and GD300 Go to Afghanistan with U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Jan. 23, 2012 — The General Dynamics C4 Systems JTRS HMS Rifleman Radio (AN/PRC-154) and the General Dynamics Itronix GD300 wearable computer deployed this month to Afghanistan with elements of the 75th Ranger Regiment. The Rangers are equipped with the Rifleman Radio for intra-squad communications and with the GD300, running the Tactical Ground Reporting (TIGR) tactical “app,” to send text messages, situation reports and other information to individual soldiers. Feedback from planned operational assessments will be used to inform the future fielding of the Rifleman Radio to the Army as a whole.

“This capability provides unprecedented communication and situational awareness that changes how soldiers fight,” said Chris Brady, vice president of Assured Communications for General Dynamics C4 Systems. “The JTRS HMS Rifleman Radio is ready for combat and could reduce the military’s dependence on interim radio solutions that are unable to deliver anything like this.”

The JTRS HMS program office and the Ranger Regiment decided to conduct the operational assessment following three separate successful evaluations in 2011. The Rifleman Radio is part of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Fit (HMS) radio family.

The JTRS HMS Rifleman Radio provides reliable networked voice and data communications in austere and cluttered urban environments using the government’s Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW). The General Dynamics GD300 is an Android®-based, full-rugged, wrist or body-worn computer. When paired with the Rifleman Radio, the GD300 displays the position-location information of all soldiers in the network. Soldiers can also use the GD300 touch-screen display to place pictorial graphics and send maps to team members or their leaders using the TIGR “app.”

The75th Ranger Regiment, a rapidly deployable strike force, is the largest special operations combat element in the U.S. Army. The 75th Ranger Regiment has been continuously deployed in support of the War on Terror since October 2001.

For more information about JTRS HMS radios by General Dynamics C4 Systems, please visitwww.gdradios.com. Information about the General Dynamics GD300 is available at www.gd-itronix/GD300.