Key Army radio system has a 72 percent failure rate

The Defense Department's top weapons tester told lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday that a key component of the Army's battlefield network now in development failed 72 percent of the time in tests last year. The network is the centerpiece of the service's modernization strategy, according to testimony by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli at the same hearing.

The Ground Mobile Radio version of the Joint Tactical Radio System worked so poorly in secure voice mode that the combat unit conducting the tests last year at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico had to rely on runners for communications, something "the Army has not done since World War II," J. Michael Gilmore, Defense's director of operational test and evaluation, said at a hearing of the Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces of the House Armed Services Committee.

The Army plans to install the Boeing-developed Ground Mobile Radio in its tactical vehicles, as well as use it to transmit broadband data across the battlefield along with voice communications, Chiarelli said. But the Army needs to demonstrate it can work in a 20- to 30-node network in tests at White Sands this summer, Gilmore said.

In his written testimony, Chiarelli said the Army plans to use two other Joint Tactical Radio System variants to support communications at the battalion level and below -- the Rifleman Radio and the Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Fit (HMS) radio, both developed by General Dynamics.

The Rifleman Radio performed poorly in tests in 2009, but after correcting problems, testing last month showed the contractor had "produced a radio that appears to be far superior in cost and performance to the original Rifleman Radio," Gilmore said in his written testimony.

The HMS radio completed its first test in February, and Gilmore said there is a "substantial risk" that problems will be discovered during additional tests this summer.

Chiarelli told the panel that these three radios are in essence small computers, providing the service with great flexibility in the acquisition process. Because they use nonproprietary software, this will increase competition and drive down prices when the Army buys the radios.

But Michael Sullivan, director of acquisition and sourcing management at the Government Accountability Office, testified that the software that supports broadband networking in the Ground Mobile Radio and the software for HMS and Rifleman Radio have not yet "reached acceptable levels of maturity."

The Army plans the most complex network testing in its history this summer at White Sands. Tests will include both the JTRS radio and the satellite-based Warrior Information Network-Tactical, which is used for communications with tactical units at the battalion level and above. The Army will field the equipment in what it calls "capability sets" to provide an end-to-end network.

But the Army has not yet developed a test plan, including how to capture and provide data to evaluation teams, Gilmore said. The Army planned to start the network test this June, but Gilmore suggested the service push back testing until mid-August while it develops the test plan.