Army halts multibillion-dollar radio program.

The Defense Department's ambitious program to equip the military services with a family of digital combat radios has run into significant roadblocks.

Encryption problems and an array of other technical shortcomings are throwing the entire project into question, said industry sources.

The Joint Tactical Radio System was conceived as a family of high-capacity tactical radios to provide both line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications, video and data sharing among all the military services. The entire program--valued at up to $5 billion--eventually would replace more than 750,000 radios in the current military inventory.

The JTRS version known as "cluster 1," intended for use aboard Army helicopters and ground vehicles, is scheduled for a major Defense Department review this summer.

An Army technical review, known as "early operational assessment," is slated for April. In January, however, the Army ordered the contractors to halt JTRS-related work for at least six weeks.

"Technical challenges were encountered during development and integration that indicated the need for upgrades in performance and modifications in design," said Timothy Rider, spokesman for the Army Communications and Electronics Command.

This marks a sharp reversal of fortune for JTRS, which was hailed by Pentagon officials in 2002 as a "transformational" program that would underpin the Defense Department's vision of an interconnected "network-centric" military force.

A contractor team led by the Boeing Co. has been developing the cluster 1 radio for nearly three years. Although technical glitches have been reported along the way, the Army's decision to freeze the program took many by surprise.

A Boeing spokesman said the company is "focusing on completing the early operational assessment phase of the program. The EOA, the spokesman said, "will provide evidence of the capabilities and maturity of the system."

The Army declined to elaborate on what exactly the technical issues are that potentially could derail this program. Industry sources contacted by National Defense indicated that one key area of concern is the encryption technology, which is overseen by the National Security Agency. Changes in the JTRS "security architecture" requested by the NSA potentially could delay the deliveries of JTRS cluster 1 by two years. Unlike previous generations of military radios, JTRS is entirely software-based, making the system more susceptible to hacking and prompting NSA to tighten the encryption requirements.

Meanwhile, facing a two-year delay, the Army would have no substitute system to install aboard helicopters. The need to come up with an alternative plan to equip aircraft with new radios also may have contributed to the Army's decision to stop the work.

Additionally, the entire JTRS program is likely to see a sweeping management shake-up. In addition to cluster 1, the Defense Department is funding clusters 2 and 5 for handheld radios, and an airborne-maritime cluster of radios for use aboard ships and fixed-wing aircraft. Each cluster is managed by different program offices in the Army, Navy and Air Force.

A policy directive known as an "acquisition decision memorandum" is reportedly going to mandate changes in the reporting structure of JTRS. It will create a single program office for all clusters.

A personnel shuffle also is taking place in the office of the assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration, which oversees JTRS. At least three top NII officials have departed in recent weeks.

"JTRS in general is really having problems," said an industry official. "Much money has been spent and nothing has been fielded."

Another industry source speculated that the airborne-maritime cluster of JTRS could be cancelled entirely in favor of an off-the-shelf command-and-control radio that would be less complex and less likely to run into the problems encountered in the cluster 1 program.

The Defense Department's budget request for fiscal year 2006 includes funds for the "restructuring" of the Joint Tactical Radio System, said an Army official. The Pentagon is seeking $230.3 million for cluster 1, $144.7 million for cluster 5 and $156.7 million to develop a series of JTRS software packages.