Bandwidth availability poses growing challenge for military

The competition for bandwidth among commercial and military users around the globe poses a challenge for the U.S. military as it expands the concept of network-centric warfare and fields more unmanned vehicles, reports Aviation Week.

A key incident illustrates this dilemma: A multinational organization was able to disable the radar of a major U.S. combat system. This is because the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, acting in accordance with the International Telecommunication Union, inadvertently sold the operating frequency band of the B-2 bomber’s Raytheon APQ-181 radar to a commercial user, even though installing new radar arrays on the 20 surviving jets will cost well over $1 billion.

While more information is stored electronically and shared, the radio-frequency bandwidth available to share it remains fixed. The pressure is increasing, as consumers trade voice telephones for video smart phones, computer users everywhere demand broadband and new applications emerge. But the concept of network-centric warfare and the wider use of unmanned vehicles are making militaries equally dependent on the availability of wideband wireless.

For example, the Joint Tactical Information Distribution System, the first attempt to create a network-centric environment has “limited supportability outside the continental U.S.,” according to a U.S. military presentation, because it was developed in an occupied band.

It remains to be seen what steps can be taken by the U.S. government to head off such problems and accommodate the military’s increasing need for wideband wireless.