How Thales' SquadNet radio is evolving communications on the battlefield
Thales launched the SquadNet personal role soldier radio approximately 5 years ago. The product builds on our experience of compact, robust, secure military radio design. Around 30,000 units have been delivered to several different customers, mainly in Europe. These customers selected SquadNet following open competition and evaluation including range and robustness trials. In service the SquadNet personal role radio is proving to be well liked by users for its reliable communications, simplicity, low weight and long battery life. SquadNet is performing in the most challenging theatres, and new waveforms have been delivered to enhance capability or to meet customer specific challenges.
A personal role soldier radio is a compact communications device typically carried by all dismounted soldiers to provide secure voice and data communications within and between teams. As modern military operations demand greater agility and rapid information exchange, the integration of lightweight, wearable radios becomes increasingly vital for the success and safety of personnel at the tactical edge. The personal role soldier radio is sufficient for the majority of dismounted users, although dismounted commanders often carry an additional longer range radio for reach-back or interoperability with platforms.
In this article we will look at the various customer considerations when purchasing a personal role soldier radio and share our experience over the past 5 years based on our delivery and performance of the Thales SquadNet soldier radio in-service.
Reliable Operating Range
Ground-to-ground communications is inherently challenging due to the terrain, environment and obstacles. These issues are compounded for the dismounted soldier who is typically moving, often hidden from line of sight, low to the ground and with the radio worn on the body the antenna can be shielded by a soldier's bulk and equipment.
SquadNet has a unique narrowband MANET waveform to provide soldiers with voice communication, team positions and other data over the ranges that sections and platoons typically operate. The narrowband MANET SquadNet waveform consistently achieves longer communications ranges than other personal role soldier radios, even those with ten times the power output and this has been demonstrated during various customer trials worldwide. Like all radios, SquadNet point-to-point range depends on the surrounding environment but customer trials have achieved up to 18kms over water or 9kms over open land. Ranges in other environments such as undulating farmland is around 3kms, 1km in woodland and several hundred metres in built up urban areas. These ranges are considered more than sufficient for a personal role soldier radio where dismounted soldiers tend to operate in close formation to provide fire support especially in the more challenging environments (woodland/urban).
The SquadNet MANET networking capability provides redundancy via relay to support communications in all environments. The MANET capability is especially beneficial in more challenging environments such as urban areas where all communications are automatically relayed around corners or in/out of building.
The MANET capability can also be used for planned range extension, and several customers have seen range increase significantly by mounting a SquadNet radio on a mast, on a helicopter or an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV). When elevated, there are less obstacles between transmitter and receiver so range can be extended to 40+kms when using a UAV relay.
Services and Bandwidth
Voice and location services are considered essential. Data capability to share target and other tactical information is also required to support operations. Higher data throughput required wider bandwidth but increasing bandwidth has a significant negative impact on other parameters such as range, battery-life and detectability.
The SquadNet waveform provides secure voice communications together with regular location reports and data to support a typical Battlefield Management Application (BMA). SquadNet, for example, when coupled with BMAs such as TMS, Sitaware and TAK, enabling dismounted commanders to share and view information such as the location of friendly forces, enemy positions, target assignments, orders, pictures, map overlays, navigation way points and casualty locations.
Lower Burden for the Soldier and the Logistics Network Size, Weight and Power (SWaP)
Minimising the size and weight burden on the dismounted soldier is critical as it directly impacts their mobility, endurance, and ultimately operational effectiveness. The SquadNet personal role radio with battery weighs 250g leaving more capacity for critical supplies such as ammunition, food and water.
Battery Solution - Recent experience has highlighted that endurance is a crucial feature for soldiers and resupply is not always reliable. Positive feedback has been received from several SquadNet customers regarding the battery and charging solution:
- Excellent battery endurance of up to 24hrs in operational use
- Spare rechargeable batteries are lightweight and easy to carry
- Flexible Charging - operate or rechange from any USB source (including power-bank)
- Lower logistic burden & costs - fewer batteries and battery chargers to manage
- Ability to operate to standard AA cells (3 AA cells provide up to 28hrs of operation)
Ease of Use - Feedback from user trials is that SquadNet is exceptionally easy to use and requires little or no training. The radio automatically optimises routing, providing an audible alert if the user gets out of range. Network locations are refreshed typically every 5 seconds, and each radio provides a readout of their location as well as the number of other users connected to the network.
Reliability - Data gathered from 5 years in-service show that SquadNet is exceptionally reliable with failure rates of less than 1% per annum. This high reliability and fewer batteries to manage translates to a significant through-life cost saving for users compared to other radio solutions.
Security
SquadNet is designed with a red/black security architecture so that clear and encrypted data are not processed on the same processor. The architecture includes a dedicated crypto processor chip to manage the data flow and provide separation in the architecture. SquadNet is provided with a selection of AES algorithms and users can generate their own unique 'seed' keys for these algorithms. For further protection all traffic keys are encrypted so they cannot be compromised during distribution which is a significant security risk when large numbers of radios are deployed forward in the battlespace.
SquadNet users generate unique traffic keys on the radio management software known as the Key Generation and Fill (KGF) tool. These Traffic Encryption Keys (TEKs) are encrypted using a Key Encryption Key (KEK) so they can be transferred securely to the SquadNet radio. Different encryption keys can be assigned to each channel and within that channel different keys can be assigned to the different services (voice, location and data). This combination of advanced security features is unique to SquadNet making it the most secure personal role soldier radio.
Countering Electronic Warfare (EW) threats
Historically, Low Probability of Detection (LPD) and Low Probability of Interception (LPI) waveforms to counter EW have been employed for critical voice and data communications. However, recent experience has shown that the personal role soldier radio needs to include these capabilities to prevent soldiers being detected and targeted by surveillance or attack drones because of their radio frequency (RF) transmissions.
In-service, the SquadNet waveform has proven to be very effective in these challenging environments, maintaining communications even when being directly targeted by jamming equipment. The features of SquadNet that contribute to this performance include:
- Unique narrowband Manet waveform implementation providing redundancy
- Low power transmission (25 and 250mW)
- Frequency hopping Anti-Jam (multiple hop-sets utilised in Manet mode)
- Specific Low Probability of Detection waveform
- Low Duty Cycle on air
- Very low power mode (25mW) for fixed site/trench operation
Adding functionality through Software Updates
SquadNet is a uniquely flexible software defined radio and can be modified, adapted and interfaced with other products as communication requirements evolve over the coming decade and beyond. Working with our existing customers, Thales has developed new waveforms for SquadNet to reduce detectability, avoid jamming, operate in very confined bandwidths and multiplex additional data services. To fully exploit the opportunities that SDRs offer, operational feedback is required to steer future radio waveform development, radio interfaces, application software etc. and Thales are keen to work with customers having recently established the SquadNet User Group (SNUG) to make SquadNet even better.
Since SquadNet's launch, several new waveforms and software updates have been provided to enable additional capabilities. An early enhancement was the introduction of a dual voice net capability to allow voice services to be partitioned, enabling one radio to simultaneously operate on two voice nets. This is useful where a Section Commander wants separate voice nets for section and platoon comms.
The ability to quickly create new waveforms to counter evolving EW threats is a key benefit of a software defined radio (SDR). SquadNet was initially launched with a fixed frequency waveform but, recognising the growing potential of peer engagement and proliferation of EW systems worldwide, Thales developed a frequency hopping capability and combined this with other techniques to increase resilience in contested RF environments.
Responding to operational feedback, Thales is currently rolling out a new SquadNet EMCON mode which enables commanders to suspend all network emissions to have zero RF signature. This network shutdown (and reinstatement) is triggered with a secure over the air command from the commander.
SquadNet as Part of the Wider Integrated Soldier System
Integrated soldier systems are enabling more agile, connected, and capable teams, empowering soldiers with better command of their environment and greater operational flexibility. The effectiveness of these systems depends heavily on the seamless interplay of user, devices and networks. SquadNet stands out in this regard due to its combination of reliable voice and high-integrity data services, low physical and cognitive burden on soldiers, open interfaces for proven integration with third-party Battlefield Management Applications (BMAs) such as Sitaware, TAK, TMS, Delta Suite and others. The capabilities and interfaces provided by Thales' SquadNet are enabling several customers to make rapid progress with cost-effective soldier system solutions using a variety of EUDs and Battlefield Management Applications.
Summary
Operating range remains the key customer requirement and the SquadNet narrowband Manet waveform provides reliable communications for ground-to-ground communications in a mix of environments with less batteries.
Ease of use is important so as not to distract the user from their key tasks, as is dependable range and in-service reliability. SquadNet is simple to use, low burden and has an exceptional in-service reliability record.
The widespread deployment of sophisticated detection and jamming systems is a significant threat to soldier safety and mission success. New communication systems need to be designed to operate discretely in these challenging RF environments and SquadNet's unique narrowband, frequency hopping MANET waveform provides a very resilient and proven solution even in the most challenging RF environments.
The ability to evolve capability is increasingly important to react to changing operational needs with software updates rather than new hardware. SquadNet has a proven ability to deliver new capabilities utilising the same hardware and is integrated with soldier systems including several Battlefield Management Applications.
For more information please visit:
http://www.thalesgroup.com
