One of the continuing effects of diminishing defense procurement resources is a focus on developing COTS solutions for tactical military radio users that utilize reconfigurable hardware and software "building blocks". A product development activity has been underway for several years to create a fieldable near term solution. This activity has led to the development of three radios operating in different frequency bands (HF, VHF and multiband) built up from a common set of hardware and software elements. These radios are the first members of a diverse product family that are based on these elements. The practical difficulties and tradeoffs as well as lessons learned are discussed in this paper. Particular focus is given to the issues of conflicting performance/cost requirements, commonality of modular elements and system partitioning, life cycle cost savings, as well as the saving in development realized through this approach as applied to the development of tactical radios. The desire to provide a radio solution with greater than 70% commonality while still meeting the size and battery power requirements for a world class tactical product are addressed. Some of the specific issues that are discussed include the development of a suitable architecture, considerations for maximizing radio performance, the selection of data busses, support for multiple cryptographic requirements, and interoperability with legacy systems. In addition, the applicability of the approach to hosting currently undefined waveforms and the suitability of open architectures for tactical military products is covered.
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