The Ministry of Defense of India (MoD) and the Public Defense Enterprise (DPSU) Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) today signed a contract for the supply of software-defined radio tactics (SDR-Tac) worth more than ₹1000 crores
SDR-Tac, jointly designed and developed by the Defense Electronics Laboratory (DEAL) of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) through a consortium of local agencies and industry consisting of the Weapons and Electronic Systems Engineering Organization (WESEE), BEL, the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Center (CAIR) and the Indian Navy will bring strategic depth to the armed forces.
According to the statement, “Delivery will take place within three years. BEL is already supplying SDR-Naval Combat (NC) and SDR-Air is in the process of being evaluated by consumers. DRDO and BEL plan to provide the latest SDRs with a degree security to the armed forces. “
The SDR-Tac is a four-channel multi-mode, multi-band, 19-inch, trunk-mounted, ship-controlled software-defined radio system. It is designed to service voice-to-ship, ship-to-shore and air-to-air data communication for central network operations. It supports simultaneous operation of all four channels, covering V / UHF and L band.
This SDR system contains many types of waveforms for narrowband and broadband applications. MANET waveforms are available in UHF and L-Band to support the adhoc network function for network operations. Attempts to evaluate users, covering comprehensive port and sea phase tests, were successfully completed in May to June 2018 in Visakhapatnam for all waveforms, including V / UHF and L-Band MANET waves in different network configurations.
Interoperability tests with all other form factors covering Airborne SDR-AR on board Dornier Aircraft, SDR-Tac on board INS Kirch in sailing mode, SDR-Manpack and SDR-Handheld were also successfully performed. All aspects were successfully evaluated by all user agencies of the Navy and permission was awarded for procurement.
The military needs to move from unambiguous radio in the past to more flexible software radio stations (SDRs) to meet most of its wireless communication needs. These SDRs will be backwards compatible with existing Indian radio stations. Different service groups require different radio factor radios for specific platforms and forms / applications. SDRs allow the use of common waveform / application execution methods for different form factors. They also allow the implementation of futuristic waveforms on the same hardware, using software programmability, thus providing longer life and cost savings.
A key factor in SDR is that software programmability allows easy changes to basic radio characteristics, such as modulation types, operating frequencies, bandwidth, multiple access schemes, source and channel encoding / decoding methods, propagation / distribution techniques, and algorithms. for encryption / decryption. Traditional hardware-oriented radios require hardware changes to modify these key features. Many types of radio equipment can be replaced by multi-mode, multi-band, multi-function SDRs with appropriate form factors.