SINCGARS: Difference between revisions

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SINCGARS stands for "Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System." It's supposed to provide U.S. military commanders with a reliable, secure, easily maintained Combat Net Radio (CNR) that handles voice and data.

It directly provides internet access to battlefield units, a capability called "Tactical Internet" (TI). It also has direct interfaces for GPS and tactical computer systems. It is the real hardware behind much of the new U.S. intiative to modernise and automate the battlefield. The U.S. military calls this programme "Task Force XXI" because they hope it will bring them into the 21st century. The most recent requirements document is for 2mar1992.

SINCGARS operates in the VHF miltiary radio band, from 30 to 88 MHz.

SINCGARS is modular to have commonality among ground and airborne systems. The manpack and vehicular radios use the same receiver-transmitter. It meets NATO interoperability requirements. The system divides its 58 MHz of range into 2320 channels. It's supposed to survive in a nuclear environment, which specifically includes operation within EMP envelopes.

SINCGARs maintains communications security (COMSEC) by controlling the electronic tuning using a sequence based on a pseudo-random number generator. This is called the VINSON device, and it is roughly equivalent to the wideband frequency-hopping systems used in modern mobile telephones. Unlike them, SINCGARS also has electronic counter measures.

SINCGARS is replacing the incrementally-improved Korean-war and Vietname-war-era crystal-controlled radios (AN/PRC-77 and AN/VRC-12). An aircraft radio SINCGARS is in production, and is phasing out the current air-to-ground radios (AN/ARC-114 and AN/ARC-131).

Because it uses modern digital technologies, SINCGARS is rapidly improving, using commercial microcircuitry for mobile telephony. The U.S. has an "active improvement" program to encourage the vendor(s) to reduce the size and weight of SINCGARS.

Timeline:

11/1983 ITT wins the contract for the first type of radio, for ground troops.
5/1985, ITT wins the contract for the airborne SINCGARS.
7/1988 General Dynamics wins a second-source contract for the ground radio.
4/1989 ITT reaches "Milestone IIIB": full-rate production.
12/1990 1st Division is equipped.
12/1991 General Dynamics wins the "Option 1 Award" for the ground radio.
3/1992 ITT wins a "Ground and Airborne" award.
8/1993 General Dynamics achieves full rate production.
4/1994 ITT and General Dynamics compete for the ground radio.
5/1994 ITT wins a sole-source contract for the airborne radio.

External LiNks
www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/sincgars.htm

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-'''Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System''' or '''SINCGARS''' is a new family of [[VHF]]-[[FM]] combat net radios which provides the primary means of command and control for [[Infantry]], [[Armor]] and [[Artillery Units]]. SINCGARS is designed on a modular basis to achieve maximum commonality among the various ground and airborne system configurations. A common Receiver Transmitter ([[RT]]) is used in the manpack and all vehicular configurations. SINCGARS family of radios has the capability to transmit and receive voice, tactical data and record traffic messages and is consistent with [[NATO]] interoperability requirements. The system operates on any of the 2320 channels between 30-88 [[megahertz]] and is designed to survive in a [[nuclear environment]]. [[COMSEC]] for the basic radio is provided by use of the [[VINSON device]]. An Integrated COMSEC ([[ICOM]]) version of the SINCGARS is currently in production. SINCGARS is operable in a hostile environment through use of [[Electronic Counter Countermeasure (ECCM)]]. SINCGARS replaces the current standard manpack and vehicular radios, [[AN/PRC-77]] and [[AN/VRC-12]] family, respectively. An airborne version of the SINCGARS radio is in production and will replace the currently standard aircraft radios, [[AN/ARC-114]] and [[AN/ARC-131]].
-The Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) provides commanders with a highly reliable, secure, easily maintained [[Combat Net Radio (CNR)]] that has both voice and data handling capability in support of command and control operations. SINCGARS, with the Internet Controller, provides the communications link for [[Task Force XXI]]. SINCGARS configurations include manpack, vehicular (both low and high power), and airborne models. Communications Security (COMSEC) is integrated in currently produced versions of the ground and the airborne radios, and the System Improvement Program (SIP) models providing upgrades to enhance operational capability in the tactical internet (TI) environment, and the Advanced System Improvement Program (ASIP) models that are of a reduced size and weight provide further enhancements to operational capability in the TI environment.
 SINCGARS stands for "Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System." It's supposed to provide U.S. military commanders with a reliable, secure, easily maintained Combat Net [[Radio]] (CNR) that handles voice and data.