Pentagon cancels $15.9B battlefield radio program

From NextGov.com: The Defense Department formally terminated a decade-plus $15.9 billion program to develop a radio capable of transmitting broadband data on the battlefield.

Frank Kendall, acting undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, wrote to Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, saying the per-unit cost for the radios had spiraled after Defense scaled back plans to buy 86,209 to 10,293. The reduction triggered a congressional mandate for termination of any program whose cost has grown by more than 25% over the original estimate.

Kendall said the Pentagon now plans to adopt a non-developmental strategy to acquire radios from industry that can deliver terrestrial broadband services on the battlefield using the Wideband Networking Waveform, software developed and owned by the government. The waveform can transmit data at rates up to 2 Mbps. Read the entire article here.