The Air Force is close to refining a design and migration strategy for a secure new communications gateway system programmed to replace almost its entire inventory of 124 radios over the next decade.

The airborne cluster of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is shaping into a family of 10-20 radio sets relying on commercial off the shelf hardware components and software-defined programming.

When conceived, the system was expected to operate within the 2 MHz to 2 GHz range on the radio frequency spectrum, but now some Air Force officials believe the range will be much higher. A precise range should be defined later this month, but the upper limit is now expected to range between 45 GHz to 56 GHz, said Col. Charles M. Whitehurst, director of the Global Communications & Information Directorate at the Air Force Command and Control and Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance Center (AFC2ISRC) at Langley AFB, Virginia.

Laser communications are possible in that higher frequency range. The optical system is part of the Pentagon's transformational communications program, which aims to deliver bandwidth in excess of 10 gigabytes per second anywhere on the battlefield. By comparison, the current Link-16 Joint Tactical Information Distribution System provides no more than 250 kilobits per second.