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ITT Electronics Systems Chooses ORBexpress for Scalable, Field Proven SDR


HERNDON, VA - October 12, 2010 – Objective Interface Systems, Inc. (OIS), provider of the most widely used communications middleware for software-defined radios (SDRs), today announced that its ORBexpress® product has been chosen as the middleware foundation for ITT Electronic Systems’ Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) and for ITT’s Rifleman, Soldier and SideHat™ radios.

The SRW is a key element in the U.S. Department of Defense’s efforts to build a mobile and adaptive communications network implemented in a wide range of Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) radios. The SRW provides massive quantitative and qualitative advances over its predecessor technologies, offering dynamic, ad hoc networking and two orders of magnitude improvement in throughput. The SRW was successfully demonstrated using ITT radios during Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) events conducted by the US Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center at Fort Dix, N.J.  SRW 1.01.1C is the first JTRS Networking Waveform to achieve Software Communications Architecture (SCA) 2.2.2 compliance and to be evaluated and assessed by NSA for fielding and certification.

ITT also implements the SRW in all three of its SCA-based radios, which offer significantly new capabilities to the warfighter:

  • ITT’s Rifleman Radio, a lightweight body-worn radio, allows dismounted infantry soldiers and Marines to communicate among themselves and surrounding vehicles, sensors, and unmanned vehicles. The Rifleman Radio links soldiers to each other, bridges the mounted to dismounted gap, and provides situational awareness to command elements.
  • ITT’s Soldier Radio provides capabilities ranging from simple push-to-talk voice communication to networked data communications. Wideband SRW is supplemented with narrowband JTRS Bowman Waveform (JBW) to provide coalition interoperability and support export configurations.
  • ITT’s SideHat™ is an SRW Appliqué that adds a JTRS-compliant second channel to the ITT Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS) already used on more than 100 different vehicle platforms. Advanced features like tiered gateway communication between units on different frequencies provides operational flexibility.

ORBexpress provides the core communications architecture for the operational environment used by ITT for the SRW. ORBexpress also provides the core communications architecture for the Rifleman Radio, the Soldier Radio and the SideHat™ radio, as it does for all JTRS SDRs based on the SCA. ORBexpress is the only Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) communications middleware that has successfully achieved SCA certification in fielded radios.

“ORBexpress has played a key role helping us reach our development milestones on the Soldier Radio Waveform and on the Soldier, Rifleman and SideHat™ radios,” said David Prater, vice president of ITT’s Advanced Network Solutions Business Area. “It was refreshing to work with a vendor who actually understood the challenges we faced in SDR and delivered working solutions each time.  OIS exceeded our expectations with the quality and speed of their product deliveries. Their technical support gave us the right person to talk to whenever we needed it.”

“ITT has a very talented engineering team. We have enjoyed working with ITT to support bringing the SRW to its current field-proven state,” said Joe Jacob, senior vice president for OIS. “It is especially satisfying to see ITT’s excellent engineering work implemented in several different platforms. We are also pleased that ORBexpress is serving as the communication infrastructure for these three ITT radios delivering key next-generation communications capabilities to the warfighter.”

About ITT Electronics Systems

ITT Electronics Systems is a world leader in wireless networking systems for tactical military and government systems and the world’s largest provider of military VHF radios including the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System and Advanced Tactical Communications Systems families with nearly one-half million systems in use by over 34 countries. ITT ES designs and integrates network-centric communications, provides engineering support, builds a wide array of antennas as well as large-aperture satellite terminals and mobile satellite defense systems. ES leads with new technology such as the Soldier Radio Waveform for the Joint Tactical Radio Systems as well as in advanced information assurance solutions, technologies to reduce system size, weight and power, and next generation waveforms.

About OIS
Objective Interface Systems (OIS) is the worldwide leader in high-performance, real-time and embedded communications middleware solutions. Its ORBexpress products are used wherever systems require an extremely fast, small-footprint communications infrastructure where failure is not an option. Thousands of customers in the defense and aerospace, telecommunications, banking, medical devices, data communications, industrial automation and process control, transportation and robotics markets worldwide use the ORBexpress communications infrastructure to build more flexible, upgradeable and capable products. Available in C++, Java and Ada, independent testing consistently shows ORBexpress is the fastest and most robust ORB available. For more information on ORBexpress and the OIS portfolio of products, visit: www.ois.com/products/ois-products.html, call 1 800-800-OIS7 in the U.S or e-mail inquiries to: info2010@ois.com. Visit Objective Interface at www.ois.com.