Eight lessons from the rollout of Thales'
SquadNet Soldier Radio

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There are a number of factors for a country to consider when procuring soldier radios for their army. Capability, soldier burden, logistics, operational threats, procurement practice and fiscal constraints all come into play, as with any national procurement. In this article, Thales shares eight lessons from the rollout of their own SquadNet soldier radio to several nations.

What is SquadNet?

SquadNet is a compact military personal role communications device typically carried by all dismounted soldiers to provide secure voice and data communications within, and between, teams. It enhances situational awareness and co-ordination amongst soldiers at the tactical level to improve operational success and safety. A personal role soldier radio, like SquadNet, is sufficient for the majority of dismounted users and negates the need for all soldiers to carry larger, more complex and expensive radios.

Building on their experience from the UK Future Infantry Soldier Technology (FIST) programme, Thales launched SquadNet five years ago. Since then, around 20,000 units have been delivered to several different customers, mainly in Europe, with approximately 5,000 further deliveries planned for this year. These customers have selected SquadNet following open competition and evaluation including range and robustness trials.

What did the Thales team learn?

1. Operating Range

For many customers, range is the key performance metric of a comms system. Soldiers should be confident that their communications solution will provide the range they need for the mission in all operational scenarios. The soldier should not have to worry when transmitting a message that it may not be received because the range is limited, the radio configuration is not suitable for the terrain, or the relaying radios are not in the right locations. Testing a radio in its typical operational environment and deployments is key to ensuring that it meets the required range output.

SquadNet has a unique narrowband MANET waveform to provide soldiers with voice communication, team locations and data over the ranges that sections and platoons typically operate. The narrowband MANET SquadNet waveform consistently achieves longer communications ranges than radios with ten times the power output and this has been a strong selling point. The narrowband waveform ensures SquadNet point to point range is exceptional, with the MANET networking capability providing redundancy to relay to support communications in more difficult environments.

2. Data Capability

Data capability needs to be carefully considered when selecting a soldier radio. The higher data rates usually associated with wideband radios tend to come at the cost of lower range, higher power consumption and are easier for an adversary to detect. It is important to question what data a user needs to be able to transmit to meet their operational needs.

A narrowband transmission with a modern waveform can provide regular location reports and data to support a typical Battlefield Management Application (BMA). SquadNet, for example, when coupled with a BMA, can enable 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. This information helps commanders to better understand the situation on the ground, and enables them to plan, co-ordinate and undertake more effective and safer operations on the battlefield. Voice remains the crucial service for SquadNet, particularly when operations commence as viewing data on EUDs is not practical.

3. Reliability and Ease of Use

It is essential that a personal role soldier radio is reliable and easy to use in order to reduce the cognitive burden of the operator.

It is possible for radios to be designed in such a way that makes it easy to operate, while giving users confidence that it is performing. For example, SquadNet was designed to monitor the network connection, optimise routing and create alerts if you are outside of range. Additionally, regular network health and location reporting messages ensure that the commander has accurate location reports for all team members without the need for any soldiers to make voice calls. Each radio provides a readout of the number of other network users and each soldier can read their own location from the radio screen. These design features make SquadNet easy to use. Users can learn to operate it with little or no training and be confident in its performance.

Some users request that the radios are delivered in a fully deployable state with all ancillaries in a single kit and preloaded with specific encryption, frequencies and waveforms so they can be distributed and employed immediately without any further preparation. Where it is not possible to deliver a training course, quick start user guides, video meetings and training videos in different languages also provide alternate options.

4. Battery Life and Recharging

The longer the battery life of a radio, the better, as this avoids the need to charge the device or carry heavy additional batteries.

Positive feedback has been received from several customers due to its class leading battery life of up to 24hrs in normal use. Spare rechargeable batteries are lightweight (90g each) and low bulk, each providing a further 24 hrs of operations. Customers typically purchase a radio with three batteries which will provide up to 72 hours of autonomous operations. Other radios typically require three batteries to operate for a 24 hr period.

Almost as important as a long battery life is a simple solution to recharge the batteries. SquadNet was designed to be charged from any USB source so can be used with a wide range of commercial USB power packs and charging solutions with a simple charging lead, much like a smartphone.

5. Low Burden and Robust

Minimising the size and weight burden on the dismounted soldier is essential to ensure they have maximum capacity for critical supplies such as ammunition and water. Personal role soldier radios are typically the smallest military communication devices and SquadNet is the lowest weight and size in this class.

Placement of the radio on the body has been an issue for some customers. For best performance, it is desirable to wear the radio around the shoulder or upper back area so the attached antenna can be clear of the body bulk. Some customers are unable to accommodate the radio in this location so Thales, working with a customer, developed a solution where the radio can be worn lower down the body, but the antenna located further up the body, typically on the centre of the back.

Recent conflicts have reminded us once again of the realities of warfighting and the extreme environments that equipment needs to perform and survive in. Recent images of soldiers under fire in deep mud trenches is startling but emphasises the need for military equipment that meets the most demanding environmental standards.

6. Countering Electronic Warfare (EW) Threats

The growing peer engagement threat means battlefield communications will be subject to enemy EW action, so all communication waveform needs to be resilient. 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. Today, customers are insisting that the personal role soldier radio needs to include these capabilities to prevent soldiers being detected and targeted by surveillance or attack drones as a result of their radio frequency (RF) transmissions.

SquadNet is unique in that it combines MANET networking and frequency hopping which provides a very resilient waveform.

Range is a key feature but recently Thales is seeing users turning down power levels to 25mW which reduces range. The reason for this is to minimise visibility on the RF Spectrum so not being detected during operations has become an equally important issue. Future product evolutions will look at other methods to reduce RF detectability without impacting range. Thales is currently working with one of its customers on a new mode for the SquadNet LPD waveform to enable commanders to suspend all network transmissions to prevent any RF detection.

7. Adding Functionality through Software Updates

The key benefit of a modern software defined radio (SDR) is that new functionality can be added through-life. Since SquadNet's launch, for example, 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 a new waveforms to counter evolving EW threats is a key benefit of an 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.

A key part of developing updates for SDRs is identifying new requirements as they emerge in order to support doctrine, operations and gather information on enemy EW techniques. Recovering a large number of deployed radios to update software is never welcome and likely impossible during conflict, so a key part in delivering new capabilities through software is to have a secure and distributed updating solution that could even be undertaken in the field during operations.

8. Compatibility with Other Soldier Worn Equipment

SquadNet with its mix of voice and data services, low burden, open interfaces and excellent value for money is now enabling several customers to make significant progress with their soldier system programmes.

Customers have different operational needs and preferences, so the personal radio needs to be flexible in terms of hardware and software interfaces. Audio interfaces need to support a range of headsets with approved levels of hearing protection and customer helmet fit. Data interfaces on the soldier system tend to be USB for interconnection to hubs and end user devices.

SquadNet provides a range of interfaces and has been connected to various soldier system components, typically using USB for power and data. Bluetooth is convenient but has drawbacks for operational use. Reachback and range extension is easily achievable with various military and commercial bearers including Synaps VHF radios and wideband bearers such as TSM, SATCOM, DTC and Silvus using IP and all these solutions have been demonstrated from SquadNet. These reachback solutions do not have to be complicated, for example the SquadNet SABRE application employs a dedicated push/pull server reachback solution that extends the network over any 4/5G or WiFi bearer of opportunity with the same SquadNet security. This enables secure voice and data exchange from the 'frontline' to various HQs worldwide.

For further details of the Thales SquadNet radio or to discuss any points raised in this article please do not hesitate to contact the SquadNet team: [email protected]

SquadNet Key Features:

• SquadNet provides clear and secure communications between members of a dismounted team to improve coordination and understanding;
• SquadNet has a build in multi-constellation satellite receiver providing regular location reports for all team members creating a full situational awareness picture enabling harmonised and safer operations;
• SquadNet supports data transmission such as messaging, orders, enemy location and other Points of Interest (PoIs);
• SquadNet is coupled with a suitable headset often to provide hearing protection for the dismounted troops;
• SquadNet has been integrated with various Battlefield Management Applications (including ATAK, Sitaware and TMS);
• SquadNet comes with its own simple to use application called SABRE enabling commanders to see the location of their troops overlaid on mapping, add other PoIs, send and receive text/picture messages and gateway to other networks.

For more information please visit:
http://www.thalesgroup.com