Tactical radios: at the forefront of the digital transformation of the Armed Forces
© Alexandre - Light Ex Machina - Thales
Significant technological advances in recent decades have also brought a qualitative leap in military capabilities. The way military force is used has changed, highlighting the need for technologies to maintain superiority in future battlespaces. Tactical radiocommunications are critical for operations, ensuring fluidity and effective information exchange.
Interoperability, a critical factor in international missions
Current and future combined operations are taking place in environments that demand rapid and secure information exchange between participating forces. It is critical to have information available in a timely manner, within a dynamic, highly mobile environment filled with risks and threats that can hinder the proper functioning of communications and information systems.
One of the threats faced by the Armed Forces regarding the use of communications systems in the current operational scenarios is the lack of interoperability of communications systems in combined environments when operating with other countries, such as in international missions. This will require seeking solutions, standard architectures, and coalition waveforms (WF). Other countries have already begun acquiring Software Defined Radio (SDR) capabilities to improve their secure tactical wireless communications. Examples include initiatives underway in France (CONTACT program), Italy (Forza NEC), Finland (TAC WIN), and Germany (SVFuA).
To adapt to these new requirements, one of the projects currently managed by the Spanish Ministry of Defense is the so-called Joint Tactical Radio System (SCRT), which involves the upcoming renewal of UHF/VHF and HF tactical radios used by its units with SDR technology equipment. These will have to provide the tactical communication capabilities necessary to securely guarantee the information exchanges required by our Armed Forces in both national and international operations.
Spain is currently engaged in the OCCAR international cooperation programme on Software Defined Radio known as ESSOR, through which the country has acquired, with full rights of use and transfer to third parties, the specifications for a software architecture and waveform (WF) for SDR equipment bearing the same name as the programme.
Within the Spanish SCRT programme, and linked to the ESSOR architecture, it is a mandatory requirement to develop an information security architecture built around a national cryptographic subsystem, which supports national sovereignty and preserves the confidentiality, availability, integrity, and authenticity of communications. It must be certifiable by the cryptologic authority and achieve the essential protection levels required for networked information management in new scenarios. The SCRT must also be compatible with NATO-certified encryption equipment to enable the use and contribution of encrypted Alliance communications.
SYNAPS: the qualitative leap in military radiocommunications
In its support for the digital transformation of the Armed Forces, Thales has developed SYNAPS to provide the tactical network capability needed in a collaborative, near real-time combat environment. The system offers the optimal combination of high data speed, security, integrity, and confidentiality, representing a major advance in military radio communications. The Armed Forces must be able to operate in variable environments, achieve interoperability both nationally and with our allies, and work securely in a networked manner.
The new SYNAPS family of radio systems offers a set of remarkable and unique features that meet the current and future needs of our Armed Forces, representing a leap forward in their digital transformation and a technological development opportunity for the national industry.
The SYNAPS family, in addition to international interoperability capabilities, also provides the ability to interoperate natively and with a single radio communications device with the VHF equipment currently deployed. This represents a significant operational and economic advantage for the transition from the current situation to the future one, as it allows the use of next-generation equipment together with already deployed systems on the same radio network, simultaneously optimising radio spectrum management. Additionally, it offers savings in space, power consumption, and improved autonomy for vehicles equipped with this tactical radio equipment. Programmes such as the Spanish Ministry of Defence's DRAGON could benefit from solutions of this kind.
On the other hand, the physical platform synergy with the French CONTACT program ensures a 20-year lifecycle, eliminating uncertainty regarding the long-term sustainability of a far-reaching investment, along with offering an ambitious industrial cooperation program with high national technological content.
This technological development represents a priority factor for the national defense industry, both for its domestic and international projection—a key point for the Ministry of Defense, as highlighted in the most recent National Defense Directive of 2020. This directive emphasizes the need to strengthen the national industry as well as the necessity of international cooperation.