Coalition interoperability is paramount to successful military operations, particularly in a potential conflict in the Indo-Pacific theater.
A foundational consideration for interoperability between any military organization is communications resiliency. High-intensity operations require resilient and secure communications on demand to maintain mission tempo at the tactical edge.
However, there is a current capability gap for resilient coalition interoperability between nations using high-assurance NSA Type 1 and non-NSA-approved Type 3 radios, according to Melissa Daminski, L3Harris senior Product Management director.
“Solutions that were used in past conflicts should not be leveraged against modern adversaries — the world has changed,” Daminski said. “Coalition forces need resilient, interoperable solutions with broad spectrum support, innovative techniques to avoid congestion and interference and the ability to be installed across all modern software-defined radios to succeed.”
The answer, according to Daminski, is the Anti-jam Resilient Radio Objective Waveform, or ARROW™.
| ARROW is the only waveform available today that is purpose-built for Type 3 voice, data and Position Location Information resiliency. The fast-hopping waveform supports very high and ultra-high frequencies with up to 10,000 individual voice channels without depending on GPS. |
Hundreds of thousands of platforms, including those procured by the U.S. government and deployed around the world, are software-upgradeable to ARROW. L3Harris radios, from soldier edge solutions to mounted multi-domain devices, can support ARROW, providing an extensive pre-established install base for the waveform across the globe, according to Daminski.
“We made concerted efforts to ensure ARROW is simple to use, easy to adapt and based on battle-proven resiliency,” Daminski said. “Learning and deploying an ARROW communications group does not require a lot of training; it’s simple for planners and operators alike.”
The waveform combines anti-jam, interference avoidance and spectrum awareness capabilities to deliver a resilient and scalable tactical-edge solution with the cognitive ability to adapt in highly contested and congested environments, and reconfigure “on the fly,” according to Daminski.
ARROW allows continuous voice network communications despite harassment efforts of hostile electronic warfare assets, Daminski added.
“ARROW supports the U.S. Army’s goal of moving around the battlefield unnoticed until engagement, because it allows tactical teams to be completely silent as a group when on the move, start chatter right when they execute a target, then immediately fall back to silent,” she said.
ARROW is available now as a software update for hundreds of thousands of tactical radios in use by militaries around the world.
