Last-Foot Communications
ARMY DEVELOPS VEHICLE INTERCOM SYSTEM DESIGNED FOR THE DIGITAL BATTLEFIELD.
Vehicle intercoms are a critical but frequently underappreciated solution on the digital battlefield. Although they’re often overlooked, every vehicle—tracked or wheeled, armoured or tactical—needs one to function effectively.
Intercoms enable crews and passenger to send and receive clear voice communications in noisy environments and data from sources such as vehicle alarm panels and weapon system control systems both from each other and, via onboard radios, with others further away. The best tactical communications in the world need an accompanying vehicle intercom system, and that is the task being set for the Army’s Vehicle Intercommunications System-X (VIS-X).
“You can put the most advanced digital networking devices available in a tactical vehicle, but if the soldiers can’t hear or talk above the engine and weapons noise, they won’t get much use out of it,” said Major Ronald Claiborne, assistant project manager, Vehicular Intercom Systems (APM VIS) who is responsible for the acquisition of VIS-X within the Project Manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (PM DCATS) organization.
The Army is now rapidly moving towards source selection on VIS-X and the award of a contract that would allow up to $2.1 billion in orders over a 10- year period.
“This is an aggressive acquisition. VIS-X is almost a non-developmental item,” explained Claiborne. “We are looking for systems that could be fielded within a year, potentially by the end of 2008.”
Draft requests for proposals (RFP) were issued over the summer, and the final RFP is scheduled for issue in October. “We are looking at an award in the March 2008 time frame. When VIS-X hits the street will largely depend on the vendor selected and how close it is to the Army’s desired solution. Demand for VIS-X will depend on the quantity of new vehicles that are in production in late ’08 and early ’09,” Claiborne said.
In the 1990s, the Army began moving from the analog VIC-1 to the digital VIC-3. With VIS-X, the next step is to enable the warfighter to utilize all of the digital radios and network systems that other programs will be bringing to the battlefield.
“It’s cost effective to include limited implementations of features such as Voice over IP, Session IP, common streaming audio coder/decoders, teleconferencing, 3- D positional audio and, potentially, remote control of IP-enabled networked devices,” Claiborne said. “When the big programs come along with the advanced networking, the VIS-X goes back to just being the audio interface between the soldiers and the new technology.”
The Army chose its current system, VIC-3, in 1994, with the intercom hardware manufactured by Cobham and integration provided by Northrop Grumman. The global war on terror has resulted in a massive increase in numbers, explained Claiborne. “We are probably right now procuring 2,000 to 3,500 intercoms a month. When I started, we were in the range of 100-150 per month.”
A legacy VIC-3 system support contract is now in place that extends support for the next five years, until VIS-X cutover is completed. “We just awarded a $940-million ceiling IDIQ that is the ‘buy out’ contract to maintain the VIC-3s that are out there and provide new VIC-3s for new vehicle production until VIS-X is available.”
VIRTUAL INTERCOM
The requirement for VIS-X comes from two areas: populating Future Combat Systems and other advanced programs and, in the nearer term, delivering added capability to forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“One of the limitations of the VIC-3 was that it was designed a number of years ago, where they never foresaw today’s MRAP vehicle crews of over eight personnel, and large numbers of radios. The VIC-3 has something of a limitation on the number of crew members and the number of radios it can support, simply due to the TDMA technology it uses, which limits the number of nodes that it can support. VIS-X effectively removes the limit for the number of soldiers and number of radios that the intercom can support,” Claiborne said.
A “virtual intercom” is one of the capabilities that will distinguish VIS-X from its predecessor. In the field, units can link together multiple VIC-3 equipped vehicles via field wire. But Claiborne wants to use the vehicles’ wireless links, if present, to replicate this for VIS-X.
“I want to provide some basic functionality like a group intercom over some IP pathway, and perhaps basic IP telephony. But VIS-X is not the solution for the Army for those functions. An example would be six vehicles pulling security outside a base. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t ‘touch’ each other over IP to form a single intercom over the network as opposed to limiting them with analog communications if some other program has provided the IP capability.”
Another optional feature of VIS-X is the wireless intercom extension, allowing users to move in and out of the vehicle while remaining in seamless link with their colleagues’ and vehicle’s voice network capabilities.
A minimum of two configurations are envisioned: basic and extended. “In the vast majority of the trucks and smaller combat vehicles, the VIS-X is only going to need to interface with a SINCGARS or other similar radios,” said Claiborne. “Obviously, when you start getting into the C2 variants and larger vehicles, where you eventually might be getting a digital radio that has IP connectivity or satcom on the move, then you need something that can provide an interface with an IP radio.”
Despite its modern approach, VIS-X will superficially have a “retro” look to the interfaces, with a 1960’s look and feel and big, bold dials and switches. This doesn’t represent outdated design, Claiborne explained, but rather is driven by the need to have an easy-to-use interface that soldiers and sailors can use while not having to look at the controls and while wearing gloves and being buffeted while traversing difficult terrain— and surf—at high speeds.
“We support a Navy unit, who pulled out their boat intercom and put in a new one with touch-screen displays and push buttons. The sailors in the boats didn’t want anything to do with it. They told their command that they couldn’t use the systems because it wasn’t user friendly. They pulled it out replaced it with the VIC-3, because they wanted the tactile feedback to be able to reach down in the box and operate it without having to look at a touch screen and navigate through nested menus,” he reported.
Although the cutover between the legacy VIC-3 and VIS-X evidently won’t happen overnight, the overlap poses few issues, and the two systems are expected to work well side by side. “An intercom ends at the interface to the radio. This isn’t a radio program and it’s not a network program,” said Claiborne. “There is no interoperability requirement because you will not be mixing a VIC-3 and VIS-X in a vehicle. We already have both VIC-3s and VIC-1s in the field, so there is already a mix out there.
“We are not going to pull out every VIC-3 and replace it with the VIS-X. There are over 68,000 VIC-3s fielded. There’s no reason why many won’t be out there for another 10 years or more. VIS-X will be cut into new vehicle production as new vehicles come off the line. That’s not to say that some VIC-3 won’t be replaced in high-end vehicles like the Stryker Command Variant or other high-tech programs that choose to use the VIS-X,” he added.
One of the backward-compatibility requirements for VIS-X is that it supports legacy headsets. “These headsets have Active Noise Reduction (ANR) built in, so VIS-X has to power that. It is certainly possible that they may include noise reduction technology in the intercom. I wouldn’t call it ANR, because it is not doing it at the headset level. I think that’s probably where it going to stay right now.
“We have, however, seen some really interesting technologies, some of them in the commercial sector supporting NASCAR vehicles, that can filter out background noise using digital processing in an extremely noisy environment, and that has never been implemented in the military,” Claiborne said.
COMPETITIVE FIELD
A number of different companies are targeting the VIS-X contract, including Cobham Defence Communications.
The basis for Cobham’s bid is the company’s new IP-capable TacG2 intercom system, which not only meets all the VIS-X requirements, but also maintains the high reliability and availability of the current legacy VIS products (ROVIS/AN/VIC- 3), according to managing director Steve Collier.
“The primary role of an intercom system is to safely and reliably communicate and control all users in a stressful and life threatening environment. The intercom is one of the most widely used systems in a vehicle and must be capable of being operated as second nature. Though the VIS-X program has new challenges for digital radio and network access/interfaces, we believe that the primary role of the system is unchanged,” Collier said.
“Key issues such as ease-of-use, reliability and availability must form the foundations on which any new system should be designed. Although technology is important, it must not be allowed to run away to the detriment of the platform crew. The need to operate the system under combat stress and improve combat efficiency and effectiveness must not be forgotten in any new development, and fundamentals must not be sacrificed to the genie of technology,” he added.
The core architecture of TacG2 more than doubles the number of users and radios (analog and digital) that can be directly and simultaneously accessed in comparison to legacy systems. In addition, the utilization of TCP/IP technology allows the TacG2 to further increase the overall functionality of the system, in terms of users/radios and network interfaces on any individual system or groups of TacG2 systems in a network.
Critical to the system is the man/machine interface that can be supported for various roles from crew to advanced staff user, Collier said. The current switch system is envisaged for normal users with a unique, easy-touse single-line display unit as a replacement or enhancement.
At the top end of the range, a virtual intercom can be run on any PC or PDA device (cabled or wireless) that will provide users with the full functionality of the intercom, along with additional enhanced capabilities such as selective calling and IP connectivity between vehicles and out to the external networks.
Thales, meanwhile, is offering its SOTAS IP solution for VIS-X, representing the latest iteration of a family that is on more than 100 different platforms, including the M1 Abrams, M2 Bradley, M113 and M109 and M1114 for customers in over 26 countries.
“It’s no use bidding on VIS-X if you have a noncompliant system,” said Joop Ockers, marketing director for Thales Land and Joint Systems, “We believe we are going to exceed the requirement. We still call SOTAS IP an intercom, but that’s like calling an iPod a Walkman because it’s really a multi-media network. We have been working with the term ‘local area system.’
“SOTAS IP’s features allow the crew to communicate in an extremely clear way. We are now in our third generation of Dynamic Noise Reduction (DNR). With ANR, you try and keep out and cancel environmental noise via the ear shell. But once you start speaking in the microphone, it picks up your voice and the vehicle noise too. DNR takes away vehicle noise from the microphone. Different vehicles have different noise characteristics, and DNR adapts to deal with them automatically.”
SOTAS first integrated a wireless intercom in 2000. The system is designed in such a way that it is ready to take any radio and integrate it into the system in a matter of hours.
Ockers commented, “If you need to add a Personal Role Radio to a SOTAS IP port and you want one group of soldiers to listen to the audio on a particular headset, you just set the system to do that. That is why SOTAS are in all these countries without having to redesign the system. When the system is installed and the customer wants another radio installed at an additional port, the system is flexible enough that they don’t have to come back to us to do that.”
PLIABLE ARCHITECTURE
Jim Cocke, senior vice president, Defense and Aerospace Systems Division at Sanmina-SCI, explained that the company was developing its TOCNET solution for the VIS-X requirement.
“We have developed TOCNET in such a way that the architecture is very pliable,” said Cocke. “As you move to larger vehicles and different kinds of missions, it’s a matter of selecting the pieces. If you want to have a voice capability in certain parts of the vehicle, you can do that. If you want a visual capability, TOCNET will show that data on the screen. It is very scalable.”
TOCNET is now being installed in all the Marine Corps’ roughly 5,000 MRAP vehicles, under a $165 million award made in August. The system has also been used in other tracked and wheeled platforms as well as shelters for a number of undisclosed DoD platforms.
TOCNET has also been developed to create an airborne variant, FireComm. This is now being used on C-130 upgrade programs, the C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft by Sikorsky and Boeing on the CH-53 and CH-47 programs.
In addition, Gentex and Telephonics are cooperating on a next generation digital intercom. “Gentex has been designing LVIS digital for the past two years,” said Dan Fratkin, director of business development. “The system was conceived over four years ago and is being developed to go after the maritime intercom community, where there is a lack of waterproof equipment. For the most part the maritime demand has been met by adapted ground systems. In the process of developing LVIS digital, we have produced a VoIP based Ethernet platform-based solution consistent with some of the visions of VIS-X.
“In developing LVIS Digital for the maritime community, we had a requirement for wireless and in the process of seeking the best solution for wireless, we decided to partner with Telephonics. Consequently our LVIS Digital solution comes pre-equipped with a Telephonics TruLink system, and it can be expanded wirelessly using Telephonics technology,” Fratkin continued.
As part of LVIS Digital, TruLink provides a range of up to 1,500 feet and an eight-hour battery life.
“The TruLink is being used in numerous airborne and ground vehicle applications as a wireless intercommunication system,” explained Steve Esposito, vice president of business development at Telephonics.
The Army and Navy also use TruLink on airborne platforms, as part of their individual Aircraft Wireless Intercommunication System programs.
Another company in the competitive mix is Selex Communications. “We are bidding VIS-X. The solution we are putting together will, we believe really set the standard for NATO vehicle intercom systems for the next generation,” said Wes Gilson, president of the company.
“It includes a digital and wireless component, integration with multiple different communication systems including IP-based and other technologies and provides compatibility with both the mounted and dismounted soldier,” Gilson added. “An integral part of our vehicle intercoms systems will be the ability to communicate with the world’s most successful warfighter-to-warfighter radio, the AN/PRC-343 Personal Role Radio.” ♦
