Editing Joint Tactical Radio System (section)

==Overview==
Launched with a Mission Needs Statement on August 21, 1997 and a subsequent Operational Requirements Document (ORD) on March 23, 1998 (which was revised several times), the original name was simply Joint Tactical Radio (JTR).  This effort was led by the Joint Staff and was represented by all four Services.  Each team member reported to their Service's chief information officer and reported back to the Joint Staff J6.  The ORD started with 38 Threshold waveforms/radios and 4 Objective waveforms to support operations in three domain: Airborne, Maritime, and Ground Forces.  Originally the JTR ORD do not address a software defined construct.  The working group looked at the Navy's SPEAKeasy program as well as the USSOCOM sponsored Thales MultiBand Inter/Intra Team Radios.  The JTR became Joint Tactical Radio System when the Navy took over as the acquisition executive agent.  JTRS became a family of [[software-defined radio]]s that were to work with many existing military and civilian radios. It included integrated [[encryption]] and Wideband Networking Software to create [[Mobile ad hoc network|mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs)]].

The JTRS program was beset by delays and cost overruns, particularly Ground Mobile Radios (GMR), run by [[Boeing]].<ref>[https://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs//data/2005/upl-meta-crs-7941/RL33161_2005Nov17.pdf The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) and the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS): Issues for Congress, November 17, 2005]</ref>  Problems included a decentralized management structure, changing requirements, and unexpected technical difficulties that increased size and weight goals that made it harder to add the required waveforms.

The JTRS was built on the [[Software Communications Architecture]] (SCA), an [[open-architecture]] framework that tells designers how hardware and software are to operate in harmony. It governs the structure and operation of the JTRS, enabling programmable radios to load waveforms, run applications, and be networked into an integrated system. A Core Framework, providing a standard operating environment, must be implemented on every hardware set. Interoperability among radio sets was increased because the same waveform software can be easily ported to all radios.

The [[Object Management Group]] (OMG), a not-for-profit consortium that produces and maintains computer industry specifications for interoperable enterprise applications, is working toward building an international commercial standard based on the SCA.