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US Combat Radio Network
SINCGARS is a Combat Radio Network (CRN) used by the US Armed Forces and some
of their allies.
SINCGARS is the abbreviation of Single Ground and Airborne Radio System,
consisting of a variety of radio sets ranging from hand-held devices to
vehicle mounted units. The radios can handle voice and data
communication, both secure and non-secure.
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SINCGARS radios work in the lower VHF band (30 to 88 MHz),
with 25 kHz channel spacing. They can operate on a single channel as wel as in
Frequency Hopping mode (FH). In FH-mode, the radio uses a slow hop-rate.
Early SINCGARS units, such as the RT-1439/VRC shown here, were only suitable
for non-secure communication and required an external crypto unit
such as the KY-57 (Vinson)
or the more advanced KY-99.
Later ICOM versions, such as the RT-1523, featured built-in COMSEC, so
an external KY-57 was no longer needed.
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Over 250,000 SINCGARS radios have been built. Many of them have been improved
(modified) over the years. Production started in 1984 after ITT
won the contract in November 1983.
They replaced the synthesized single-frequency radios from the Vietnam-era,
such as the AN/PRC-77
and the AN/VRC-12,
but were still backwards compatible with them.
The replacement price for a typical SINCGARS unit was approx. $6,500.
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Since 2008, SINCGARS is superceeded by a Software Defined Radio (SDR),
called Joint Tactical Radio System or JTRS,
(pronounced jitters),
that is backwards compatible with HAVE QUICK
and SINCGARS.
Due to budget overruns, technical problems and specification changes, introduction
of JTRS has been postphoned several times. It is now hoped that the first
JTRS units can be introduced in 2010.
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- RT-1439
- RT-1523 (Various models)
- RT-1702 (Export version)
- RT-1730
- AN/VRC-92F
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© Copyright 2009-2013, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Sunday, 19 September 2010 - 10:51 CET
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