Boeing has completed a successful preliminary design review of its Airborne Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System (AMF JTRS) program. Attended by more than 100 industry and government officials, the review took place in Anaheim, CA., in mid-October.

Boeing's AMF JTRS communications system is intended to provide secure, software-defined radios that feature Internet-like capabilities, enabling warfighters to communicate with one another in a network-centric environment in the air, on land and at sea. The system will bring secure networking to the battlespace, including the transmission and receipt of real-time text and voice information, as well as the ability to stream live audio and video, share maps, conduct networked meetings and use voice-over Internet protocol.

The Boeing team displayed mockups of its hardware design and demonstrated prototype radios running both legacy voice communications and the wideband networking waveform (WNW) that enables Internet-like capabilities. The team provided a multinode networking demonstration using virtual and hardware-based radios. Boeing and its teammates BBN Technologies, Harris, L-3 Communications, Milcom Systems Corporation, Northrop Grumman and Rockwell Collins have supported the pre-system development and demonstration phase since 2004. The U.S. Air Force is expected to award the design and development phase contract in early 2007.