US Army Seeks $537M Funding Boost for Network Modernization

The acquisition team responsible for the U.S. Army’s tactical network has requested a $537 million increase in funding for fiscal year 2022. 

The Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical seeks $2.3 billion in funding to modernize its force as the unit gears up for the Joint All-domain Command and Control initiative. 

The eyed budget increase is part of the military branch’s proposed $2.6 billion for network modernization. The money is expected to accommodate the Army’s plan to deploy radios and support advanced communications upgrades for warfighters, C4ISRNET reported. 

The modernization effort within the service is led by the PEO C3R and the Network Cross-Functional Team. 

Some $228 million of the network modernization increase will be set aside for the handheld, manpack and small form-fit radio program, which amounts to a total of $775 million. 

The HMS radio program, aimed at fielding four categories of radios to the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the U.S. Special Operations Command, is part of an effort known as capability sets, which deliver new collections of network tools every two years. 

With the proposed budget for fiscal 2022, the Army would be able to acquire 5,440 leader radios in the coming year to support the continued fielding of Capability Set ‘21, according to Paul Mehney, the public communications director of the PEO C3T. 

The Army’s HMS program includes single-channel data radios that support augmented reality through the Integrated Visual Augmentation System program. 

According to the service’s budget documents, the radio programs have a baseline of around 104,000 radios.