The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) and the Army's Future Combat System (FCS): Issues for Congress

Publication Date: November 2005

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: Military and defense

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Abstract:

The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is a Department of Defense (DOD) program that would play a significant role in the U.S Army's proposed Future Combat System (FCS) program. (For a more detailed description of the FCS program see CRS Report RL32888, The Army's Future Combat System(FCS): Background and Issues for Congress, by Andrew Feickert.) JTRS, envisioned as a family of software programmable radios, has been described as the "backbone" of the FCS and is intended to link the 18 manned and unmanned systems that would constitute FCS. Two JTRS sub-programs managed by the Army -- Cluster One and Cluster Five -- have experienced developmental difficulties, delays, and cost overruns which calls into question their viability. This report will be updated on a periodic basis.