Military Microwave 9

DIGEST
Military Microwave
A Supplement to Microwave Product Digest
IN THIS ISSUE
DoD and the Great Scramble for Spectrum
Burning Down the Silo
The DoD Budget and Reality
VOLUME 9 SEPTEMBER 2013
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Editorial Statement of Purpose
Military Microwave Digest serves
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DIGEST
Military Microwave
A Supplement to MPD Barack Obama, Syria
and Santayana
LTHOUGH George Santayana
had many talents, he is prob-
ably remembered by most
people as the man who in his book Te
Life of Reason, warned us that those
who cannot remember the past are con-
demned to repeat it. His sage aphorism
is as relevant today as when it was writ-
ten more than a century ago. His words
should be writ large and pasted to the
walls in every newsroom in the hope
that editors will look up from their Macs
and see them as they write Never be-
fore has there been.. one more time
in an atempt to hammer home the ap-
parent uniqueness of a current event. A
litle historical research would probably
reveal that a current situation probably
has an antecedent and maybe not all
that long ago.
Te current parlous state of afairs in
Syria presents the Obama administra-
tion with a host of ways to ignore San-
tayanas words. Obama painted two red
lines in the sand that Bashir el-Assad, so
it was assumed, would pass over at his
peril. Assad duly stomped over both,
leaving the president boxed into a situ-
ation from which there appears to be
no moral or politically expedient way
to disengage. Playing fast and free with
verbal warnings has lef Obama with no
option other than some form of atack.
Even then it will take the best spin doc-
tors the administration can fnd to bail
him out of this mess.
America is simultaneously dealing
with Vladimir Putin who takes pride
in thumbing his nose at the West and
the U.S. in particular when given the
chance, which it has in Syria, killing any
chance of UN-backed intervention in
the country. Te U.S. also must contend
with the very real threat that if it strikes,
Israel will be atacked again by Hezbol-
lah in Lebanon and possibly by Iran, as
well as what else Iran might do even if
intervention is limited to seting back
Assad by blowing up some of its military
assets. Israel would certainly act quickly
and decisively if atacked. Te collective
responses could potentially turn the re-
gion into a blazing horror.
Early on, the U.S. may have had a
chance to formally declare itself disin-
terested in Syrias civil war, but those
days are long gone, if in fact they ever
really existed. Assads near-certain use
of chemical weapons, which the U.S.
acknowledged thanks in large measure
to the result of Israeli and Jordanian in-
telligence, eliminated that option. In ad-
dition, as the U.S. has established itself
as the go-to country when things get
rough, it cannot simply decide at a mo-
ments notice that it no longer wants to
go it alone.
Arming the rebels might once have
been a reasonable approach, but now
they have been infltrated by a variety of
terrorist groups, so it is difcult if not im-
possible to know that weapons supplied
to a faction certifed as credible will re-
main there and not in the hands of our
DIGEST
Military Microwave
SEPTEMBER 2013 PAGE 3
Barry Manz, Editor
Military Microwave Digest
continued on page 6
A
Military Microwave
DIGEST
PAGE 4 SEPTEMBER 2013
IN THIS ISSUE
8
DoD Faces a Fight
for Spectrum
By BARRY MANZ Editor
20
Spectrum Management:
How We Got Here
24
Multi-function Systems
Inching Closer
30
Burning Down the Silo:
An Opinion
34
DoD Budget Cuts
and Reality
On the cover
DoD has a ght on its hands to keep its current
spectrum allocations. As commercial services
clamor for more frequencies to increase
capacity and satisfy the need for higher data
rates, DoD will have to justify why it needs the
allocations it has, share them, or lose them.
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Military Microwave
DIGEST
adversaries, as they have in Libya. A limited
strike would not touch Syrias storehouse of
chemical weapons, and the Russians would
be more than happy to replace whatever
conventional weapons and defense systems
the U.S. destroys. A limited strike with the
threat of more to come would be more ap-
pealing as it might force Assad to make
some efort toward reconciliation. And no
sane person would opt for the last option --
full-scale atack with troops on the ground.
Faced with the fact that thanks to his use
of the red line, the U.S. must do something,
Obama conveniently threw the problem
over the wall to Congress even though most
U.S. interventions have been made without
its approval. Polls indicate that most Ameri-
cans have no interest in continuing in Syria
the countrys frmly-established role as the
worlds policeman. As this was writen,
Obama had managed to drum bipartisan
support at home but was besieged by the
national leaders at the G20 conference to
stand down. Tat said, if the U.S. does not
frmly plant its foot on Assads head, its in-
action will in a single stroke have destroyed
its credibility, weakened Israels precarious
existence, and given Iran and the newly-
invigorated Al-Qaeda the assurance that the
U.S. is too weary of war and too politically
fragmented to be much of a threat.
Tere is also no need to look far back
through the ages for reasons to do as litle
as possible and call it a day. In Vietnam, the
U.S. atempted and failed to impose its will
on a country it knew precious litle about at
a cost of more than 60,000 lives and $738
billion in 2011 dollars. In Afghanistan, it ef-
fectively dealt Al-Qaeda a massive blow and
then tried to install democracy in a tribal
land with scant history of strong central
government. Te fact that the Soviet Union
atempted to do the same and lost was
somehow overlooked.
Having dispatched Saddam Hussein,
working feverishly to build a democratic
government, installing a president of its
choosing, and then announcing mission
accomplished, Iraq now has strong ties to
(of all places) Iran and is rapidly descend-
ing into sectarian violence with daily Al-
Qaeda-inspired bombings. Total cost to
the U.S. of both wars is well over $1 trillion
and nearly 5,000 coalition deaths, tens of
thousands of physical injuries, countless
survivors with PTSD and other debilitat-
ing conditions, and at least 110,000 civil-
ian deaths (and counting).
In the wars in both countries, the prima-
ry victors have been those who have hand-
somely fnancially profted from them, the
Kurds in northern Iraq, and increasingly ter-
rorist organizations. Tere is certainly hope
that in Iraq the lure of capitalism and the
countrys enormous supplies of oil will go a
long way toward improving the lot of ordi-
nary citizens. Unfortunately, history shows
that such wealth ofen winds up in the hands
of few, and everyone else remains poor.
In short, Vietnam remains a repressive
Communist country (although one with an
increasingly capitalist bent), Afghanistan re-
mains a tribal country whose fortunes con-
tinue to be tied to the poppy even though
it has enormous amounts of untapped min-
eral wealth, and Iraq under a questionable
elected government is becoming more vi-
olent and fragmented. Te takeaway should
be that massive intervention by the U.S. into
the afairs of other countries and atempting
to change cultures entrenched for centuries
rarely if ever works.
Tus far, the U. S. has stayed out of direct
participation in the countries involved in
the Arab Spring. Our modus operandi has
long been that a friendly dictatorship is pref-
erable to a quasi-democratic government
in which many opposing camps (i.e., Is-
lamists) are represented. Nearly all of these
countries are to some extent in the throes
of piecing together some type of represen-
tative government, with varying degrees of
success. Tere is still reason for hope that in
some cases the result will be favorable for
the U.S., but we wont know that for years or
even decades. At this point, laying low has
cost us nothing.
Although Americas goals in Iraq and Af-
ghanistan have always been in part to make
these countries less repressive and more
open to opportunity, especially to women
and religious minorities, it has produced un-
foreseen, undesirable consequences. One
organization, Al-Qaeda, is taking full advan-
tage of the chaos. Like an ice cube smashed
with a hammer, it has decentralized and
spread far and wide, infecting countries in
which it had a presence and expanding its
reach elsewhere. Al-Qaeda is on a roll.
If Obama chooses to atack Syria, no
mater at what level, unlike in Afghanistan
and Iraq it will face a more militarily formi-
dable adversary in possession of more than
1,000 tons of chemical weapons. It is cer-
tainly possible that the U.S. might stop afer
a limited atack but what occurs afer such
a strike is impossible to determine. Unlike
largely defenseless Iraq and Afghanistan,
the combined might of Iran, Syria, and its
allies have the power to further destabilize
the region. Tousands more Syrians will
food into neighboring countries already
brimming with the countrys displaced citi-
zens, no mater what size the atack. What
sort of exit is there for such a hit-and-run
scenario? Te best one I have yet heard is
that U.S. ships should remain in place with
the implicit warning that it Assad uses
chemical weapons again, hell face more of
the same or worse.
Like all two-term presidents, Barack
Obama began his second term with high
hopes for his legacy, accomplishing more
without the burden of seeking reelection.
What choice he makes concerning Syria
has the potential to be, in addition to the
much-loathed Afordable Care Act, what
he is remembered for. Its not a happy pros-
pect for a man who once hoped to avoid the
mistakes of the Bush administration, which
blithely ignored the past.
Barack Obama, Syria and Santayana
continued fom page 3
Polls indicate that most
Americans have no
interest in continuing
in Syria the countrys
rmly-established role as
the worlds policeman.
Te job has become increasingly difcult
as the most appealing region of the spec-
trum below about 3 GHz is already at ca-
pacity, forcing national and international
regulatory agencies to propose a variety
of ways to cram more services into a f-
nite space. Te one likely to generate the
most resources is spectrum sharing, which
while universally loathed (by DoD in par-
ticular), appears likely to be implemented
as there are no alternatives that can free-
up as many resources.
Spectrum management functions in
an environment in which national and
international politics and regulations and
agreements are accompanied by national
security interests as well as the revenue-
generating interest of the private sector. It
is an extraordinarily complex set of tasks
S
PECTRUM MANAGEMENT sounds innocuous enough until all of
the activities that a spectrum manager must perform are spelled out.
Its somewhat akin to those of an air trafc controller in slow motion.
DoD Faces a Fight
for Spectrum By BARRY MANZ Editor
Military Microwave
DIGEST
continued on page 10
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Military Microwave
DIGEST
that globally requires thousands of people
whose mission is to continually sort out
signal activity at frequencies from ELF
through about 100 GHz.
Tey must continuously monitor
known signals, and look for signals of
interest, determine their type, where they
come from, who and what is generat-
ing them, whether they belong there,
and what to do about them if they
dont. Spectrum managers today
fnd themselves at the epicenter of
the search for bandwidth, whether
they reside in the ofces of wireless
carriers or the Pentagon, Army, Air
Force, Marine Corps, or Navy. Teir
job is only going to get more dif-
cult because spectrum is no longer
a commodity but rather a precious
resource whose quantity is known, fnite,
and thus extraordinarily valuable. How
spectral resources are allocated and man-
aged holds the key to the health of entire
industries and the ability of governments
and militaries to do their jobs.
Playing Nicely Together
Spectrum sharing has been
universally resisted not just by
DoD but by wireless carriers as
well, even though they are its like-
ly benefciaries, as they fear it will
subject them to uncertainty and
interference problems. DoD has
fercely protected its substantial
resources by repeatedly playing
the national security card, which
may still work in some cases.
However, the federal government
owns more spectrum than any
other entity and DoD owns more of that
than anyone else, although it reportedly
uses only about 10% of what its been al-
located. Tis makes it vulnerable to spec-
trum sharing and the potential for some of
its resources to be reallocated to commer-
cial services. Nevertheless, as DoD has
outlined in its own spectrum management
plans (Figure 1), it will be in need of not
less but more spectrum at frequencies be-
low 3 GHz, between 4.2 and 4.4 GHz, and
in the millimeter-wave region, the later
being of litle problem as it is not densely
inhabited. DoD will thus have to justify its
frequency allocations, share them, or lose
them and will soon have the opportunity
to make its case.
In June, President Obama issued a
memorandum directing federal agencies
to enhance spectral efciency and release
spectrum for use by consumer and busi-
ness broadband users. Te edict notes that
appropriate safeguards will be created to
ensure that government systems can re-
main secure. Its goal is to ensure that there
will be spectrum available to meet the fu-
ture demands for high-speed connectivity
not just in major metro areas but in rural
areas as well. Figure 2 shows that this is
not the case today.
Specifcally, it authorizes the govern-
ment to spend $100 million to foster spec-
trum sharing and advanced communica-
tions. Te National Science Foundation
will award $23 million in spectrum-shar-
ing R&D grants and DARPA will
announce the frst of $60 million in
spectrum-sharing contracts that will
be doled out within the next 5 years.
Te NTIA and National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST)
will devote another $17.5 million
for spectrum and advanced com-
munications research and accelerate
public-private collaboration at fed-
eral laboratories.
Te memorandum further requires
NTIA to publish a list of federal test facili-
ties that commercial operators can use to
research and test spectrum-sharing technol-
ogies. Service relocations will be on top of
500 MHz the FCC is already trying pry away
from its existing users. However, the FCC
has authority only over commercial entities,
thus sparing DoD from this ini-
tiative. A push toward spectrum
sharing between commercial and
government users has also come
from NTIA as well as in a report
from the Presidents Council of
Advisors on Science and Tech-
nology (PCAST). Te council,
using NTIA data, projected that it
would cost $18 billion to clear the
1755 to 1855 MHz band, which
is now used by DoD and other
agencies but is targeted by the
NTIA for commercial use. Te
PCAST report also estimated that agencies
could share up to 1 GHz of spectrum.
Te Obama administration has been
consistently promoting its broadband ini-
tiative by various means since 2010, and the
latest memorandum puts more teeth in the
efort by essentially saying that as spectrum
DoD Faces a Fight for Spectrum
Figure 1 DoDs future additional spectrum requirements fall in the
highly-prized region below 3 GHz as well as at higher frequencies.
Figure 2 Available broadband services in the urban and rural U.S.
by data rate.
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is fnite, is fully allocated at the most appeal-
ing frequencies, that some of whats been al-
located isnt fully utilized, and since only be-
low 6 GHz or thereabouts is of commercial
interest, the only ways to accommodate the
growth in commercial wireless trafc is to
use it more efciently and share it between
government and private industry. Accord-
ing to the report issued with the Presidents
June announcement, there is currently quite
a bit of spectrum available now, and that
through its initiative and that of the FCC,
more should be available in some bands in
the future (Table 1).
DoD arguably requires
considerable fexibility in
its use of spectrum, unlike a
wireless carrier or broadcast-
er that uses a fxed frequency
or frequencies only in a sin-
gle country. DoD obviously
needs a broad range of dedi-
cated frequencies so that its
suppliers have a specifcation
to build to and must be able
to operate in many regions of
spectrum as frequencies are
beter suited for some applications than oth-
ers and because the military operates all over
the world not just in North America.
Even more vexing is the challenge
of actually operating in other countries,
whose frequency allocations are in many
cases diferent than those of the U.S. and it
must defly wend its way around commer-
cial services as well as those used by en-
emy forces. Te technological capabilities
of non-state enemies are increasingly so-
phisticated and the U.S. must comply with
internationally-binding frequency assign-
ments (that the enemy ignores), and po-
tentially disastrous interference is as much
a national as international problem.
Picking the Best Fruit
Tat the spectrum up to 3 GHz is full
to capacity is hardly surprising to anyone
in the RF and microwave industry. How-
ever, in addition to the regions superior
propagation characteristics, it is also the re-
sult of technological development and the
emergence of new services beginning with
the frst use of radiotelegraphy in the early
20th Century. As new services were created,
agencies were formed to fnd a home for
them frst nationally and then internation-
ally, and as technology enabled the use of
higher frequencies more services were add-
ed to the spectral mix. Services were placed
according to what the technology could
achieve and which frequencies ofered the
propagation characteristics that best suited
them based on the current knowledge of the
day. Some of the key regulatory events are
detailed in Spectrum Management: How
We Got Here, on page 20.
Te result is what appears in the spec-
trum chart adorning engineers walls, which
is so densely populated in some spectral
regions as to be unreadable without terrifc
eyesight or magnifcation. Like a hard drive
in need of defragmenting, a specifc service
is not contiguously allocated but in many
cases is separated in diferent bands. Tere
remain some slivers of spectrum in the
sweet spot between VHF and 3 GHz that
could be reallocated to serve wireless appli-
cations. Teir current owners would obvi-
ously have to move elsewhere, sometimes
at enormous cost and always with difculty.
DoD is one of those owners.
One might assume that DoD would re-
ceive preferential treatment in retaining its
spectrum and although it usually doesnt,
if it can prove that national security is at
stake its been a tough argument to quash.
DoD has played this Ace so many times
that it is wearing thin and as it uses so litle
of its allocations in the current environ-
ment something will have to give. DoD
has fended of many challenges over the
years, the most recent being the sad case
of LightSquared, which embodies all of
the onerous elements that make efective
spectrum management essential.
Te company created by
Harbinger Capital Partners
founder Philip Falcone had
a plan to bring high-speed,
LTE-based broadband ser-
vice to rural areas where it
might never be available a
great solution for bridging
the digital divide. It would
have combined high-power
terrestrial base stations
with satellite-delivered L-
band signals to provide a
service that LightSquared could sell on
a wholesale basis to retailers that would
brand it as their own.
Te problem, which should have been
obvious to anyone with even a smatering
of knowledge about RF technology, was
the close proximity of the LightSquared al-
location to GPS services. Afer a long, con-
tentious, politically-charged war of words
between the GPS industry, DoD, the FAA,
and industrial and agricultural interests on
one side and LightSquared on the other, the
plan fell apart and took much of Falcones
wealth with it. Te opponents said Light-
Squared was either a threat to national secu-
rity or would destroy the GPS industry and
make consumer GPS devices useless.
LightSquared said GPS manufactur-
ers were too cheap to add fve-cent flters
to their receivers, which it claimed would
Military Microwave
DIGEST
Table 1 Current and projected U.S. spectrum availability
BAND CURRENT PIPELINE
TV white spaces 0 to 150 TBD
863 to 870 MHz None None
902 to 928 MHz 26 None
1880 to 1930 MHz 10 None
2400 to 2483.6 MHz 83.5 None
3550 to 3700 MHz 50 100
5150 to 5350 and 5470 to 5825 MHz 555 None
5350 to 5470 and 5850 to 5925 MHz None 195
Total 724.5 to 874.5 More than 295
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have eliminated the potential for interfer-
ence. But no flter in a GPS receiver could
reasonably be expected to atenuate the
strong signals generated by LightSquared,
even it if it moved slightly further away from
its original allocation (as it proposed). Te
world and national security depend on GPS
and there are hundreds of millions of exist-
ing GPS-enabled devices that could not be
modifed. Tis time, national security was a
real concern and DoD ruled the day.
Tere are other examples of the poten-
tial encroachment of commercial services
on DoDs space, such as the threat from
Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB). In 1992
the World Administrative Radio Confer-
ence (WARC) allocated 1452 to 1492
MHz for satellite and terrestrial services,
which is in the middle of a band used in
the U.S. for aeronautical fight test telem-
etry. Users objected to losing the band and
the U.S. then chose 2310 to 2360 MHz for
DAB instead. Te telemetry users lost half
the band, which was reallocated for non-
government use.
In 1979, the WARC suggested that
governments move their radar systems
operating between 3400 to 3700 MHz to
diferent frequencies so fxed wireless ac-
cess applications could be accommodated.
Tis is one of the bands used by AWACS
so DoD ignored the ruling, although oth-
er countries adopted it. When the WARC
suggested around 2000 that certain bands
be allocated for the third generation of
wireless services, its recommendations
were at frequencies used by DoD systems.
DoD successfully demonstrated that spec-
trum band-sharing would not work and it
ultimately lost no allocations.
Even Wi-Fi once appeared to be a poten-
tial threat as WRC 2003, the word admin-
istrative having by this time been dropped
from the name, globally allocated the
spectrum between 5 and 6 GHz for Wi-Fi
(IEEE 802.11a). Tis was in direct confict
with DoD antiaircraf and missile defense
systems as well as instrumentation used at
radar test ranges. As IEEE 802.11b at 2.4
GHz soon followed and essentially replaced
the a version (ofering greater range at less
cost), this threat more or less disappeared.
Homeland Insecurity
While losing spectrum allocations
may be in DoDs future, it faces the threat
of terrorists operating in its bands not in
far-fung countries but at home. As these
groups are becoming more sophisticated,
can use encryption, and have ability to
hide their weaker signals under stronger
ones to avoid detection, they are becom-
ing increasingly dangerous. Te initial
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problem is not how they can be dealt with
but how they can be found.
Tis is a major and increasingly difcult
task. It requires the use of advanced spectrum
capture and recording systems that must
monitor the spectrum continuously along
with an army of analysts to fnd signals of in-
terest and evaluate them within the massive
amounts of generated spectrum data cap-
tured at numerous points throughout the U.S.
As the nation has learned, the National
Security Agency and other intelligence ser-
vices already do this. But whether or not
anyone actually knows what signal activity is
present at all points below a certain reason-
able frequency limit, what it is, and whether
it poses a threat, remains an open question.
Mapping the RF Domain
In the hope of fnding an answer to this
question, DARPA, best known for teaming
up with industry partners to accomplish
what no technology or technologist has
achieved before, is working on a program
called Advanced RF Mapping (RadioMap).
Its goal is to provide real-time awareness
of radio spectrum use across frequency, ge-
ography, and time by creating a map that dy-
namically depicts spectrum usage to simpli-
fy the task of spectrum managers and allow
them to reduce spectrum congestion and
interference. RadioMap uses data and voice
communications systems as input when
they are not communicating. DARPA likens
RadioMap to trafc cameras that show traf-
fc fow at diferent times of the day, provid-
ing real-time situational awareness. It may
actually be more like a Google Earth for RF.
Seemingly clairvoyant (the broad agen-
cy announcement was issued in 2012),
DARPA takes pains to point out that its
not interested in what people are commu-
nicating, just frequency usage. For DoD,
RadioMap is designed to provide beter
situational awareness to small tactical units
such as platoons or companies, their radios
performing not just their traditional func-
tion but providing information about near-
by threats and opportunities as well.
Summary
As if massive budget cuts were not
enough, DoD also faces increased pressure
to reduce its spectrum allocations or either
lose some of them or share them with the
commercial world, while also atempting
to create a net-centric environment that
depends on the electromagnetic spectrum
and combating threats to its security in the
U.S. Its a tall order.
Military Microwave
DIGEST
Military Microwave
DIGEST
SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT: How We Got Here
T
HE WAY THAT SERVICES in the
U.S. have been allocated portions of
the electromagnetic spectrum is dif-
fcult to understand by simply looking at a
standard spectrum chart. In addition to be-
ing almost incomprehensibly dense, some
services are allocated resources in multiple
bands rather than together in a single band.
Tere are solid and some less sold reasons
why this has occurred, and to gain some in-
sight into how it all came about, it helps to
look at some of the major regulatory events
that have taken place since the turn of the
20th Century. It is a story of an incremental
process of regulation driven by technology,
politics, and fnancial interests.
In the early 1900s, the only use of the
electromagnetic spectrum was for radio-
telegraphy for maritime communications,
but this business rapidly grew throughout
the world, driven primarily by the Marconi
Wireless Telegraph Company and later by
others. Tere was at this point no need for
spectrum management or regulation but
the rapid growth of radiotelegraphy and
the lack of regulation made the situation
like the Wild West, as Marconi brooked no
competition to its preeminent position in
radiotelegraphy equipment.
Marconi set up numerous shore stations
at major ports throughout the world and in-
structed its employees not to handle trafc
that originated from equipment other than
its own. Tis worked until 1902 when a
single event made governments realize that
Marconis monopoly could no longer be
tolerated. Having just ended what was ap-
parently a pleasant visit to America, Prince
Henry of Prussia sent a message to Presi-
dent Roosevelt thanking him for the hos-
pitality. It never got there. A dutiful Mar-
coni equipment operator refused to send
it based on the companys iron-clad policy.
Te now highly-agitated and embar-
rassed prince told his brother Kaiser Wil-
helm about this development and the
German government quickly proposed an
international conference to discuss regulat-
Military Microwave
DIGEST
ing maritime communications. Tis frst in-
ternational conference resulted in a proposal
to make all stations accept messages form
any ship regardless of what equipment was
used to send it. Te cooperation evidenced
in this conference lead to another one in
1906 at which the U.S. Navy efectively de-
bunked the claim by Marconi that equip-
ment from diferent manufacturers was
incompatible, and all participants agreed to
be vendor neutral. An international bureau
was created in Berne, Switzerland, to house
and disseminate information about all sys-
tems currently deployed and the location of
wireless stations in each country. Tis was
arbuably the frst step toward creation of
todays International Telecommunications
Union (ITU), to which at this early date was
added the extension Radiocommunica-
tions (ITU-R) as it was then the only type
of telecommunications available.
America played a major role in the drive
toward more detailed regulations although
progress in geting laws passed was sluggish.
However, once again a single event led to
rapid change: the sinking of the Titanic in
1912 and the key role that radiotelegraphy
played in saving lives. Almost immediately
thereafer legislators signed a law regulating
emissions characteristics and distress calls
along with identifying specifc frequencies
for government use. Licensing was to be
handled by the Secretary of Commerce and
Labor. Another international conference
was scheduled shortly thereafer but was
delayed until 1927 by World War I.
In the intervening years, radiotelegra-
phy had been joined by broadcast radio,
which complicated maters, and President
Warren G. Harding directed then Secre-
tary of Commerce Herbert Hoover to fnd
a way to accommodate it. Te result was a
recommendation on how spectrum should
be allocated, the frst real atempt at spec-
trum management. It was nonetheless only
a recommendation so no one was legally
bound to uphold it, which they ofen did
not. When a station in Chicago requested a
channel and the commerce department re-
jected it, the station went on the air anyway.
Tis prompted a lawsuit by the govern-
ment, which to its embarrassment, it lost.
Te court ruled that the government could
not reject a request from a legitimate entity,
which efectively meant that the govern-
ment had no control over spectrum use.
Te timing of this decision could not have
been worse, as an international conference
on spectrum regulation was to take place in
Washington that year.
Not surprisingly, the Radio Act of 1927
was quickly drawn up and signed into law,
creating a commission with the authority to
license stations, allocate frequencies dedi-
cated to specifc services, assign channels
to stations, and control transmited power.
Tis was obviously the most comprehen-
sive telecommunications law the country
had ever enacted, and it set the pace for
even further regulations.
Te 1927 International Radio Confer-
ence in Washington then produced the
frst actual regulations for spectrum man-
agement that included allocation by type
of service fxed, mobile, broadcast, and
amateur (which is all there was at the time).
All countries would have the right to use
these frequencies for their respective pur-
poses. Modifcations continued to be made
to spectrum management policies (such
as the addition of aviation) in subsequent
conferences and the globe was split up into
regions, which still exist today.
Te burgeoning federal bureaucracy
caused a proliferation of government agen-
cies that controlled their own frequency al-
locations. Te landmark Communications
Act of 1934 solved that and went much
further, creating a Federal Communications
Commission that would report to Congress
rather than the executive branch (a key
distinction) and would oversee the entire
government user community. However,
the President, through the Department of
Commerce, retained the responsibility for
federal spectrum management, a situation
that remains in place today. Tat is, the FCC
manages spectrum use for commercial,
state, and local government agencies, and
the commerce department manages the
spectrum for federal government agencies.
By this time (1934), nearly four decades
had passed since radiotelegraphy appeared,
and technology had signifcantly advanced
and services using the spectrum had sky-
rocketed. Tus began the frst major inter-
ference problems that today have become
an issue to be reckoned with. Te U.S. pro-
posed rules that would create the Interna-
tional Frequency Regulation Board (IFRB)
whose responsibility was to keep track of
frequency assignments and make recom-
mendations on spectrum usage based on
their potential for interference both within
the U.S. and internationally.
Tere is a very long list of other regu-
lations regarding spectrum management
changes that have been adopted since
then, including the creation in 1978 of the
National Telecommunications and Infor-
mation Administration (NTIA) that has
played a key role in proposing solutions to
problems arising from advances in technol-
ogy and introduced the concept of spec-
trum auctions. Te ITU became a massive
international regulatory force, was placed
under the wing of the United Nations, and
today has 193 member states and about
700 sector members.
From the viewpoint of spectrum man-
agement, there is hardly any resemblance
to conditions of even 30 years ago. Wire-
less transmission is now almost exclusively
digital, applications have multiplied, and
any activity that can more efectively be
conducted without wires either now is or
soon will be wireless-enabled. More regu-
lations to follow.
Spectrum Management: How We Got Here
From the viewpoint of
spectrum management,
there is hardly any
resemblance to conditions
even 30 years ago.
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DIGEST
Multi-function Systems
Inching Closer
C
OMBINING THE functional
resources of EW and radar sys-
tems in smaller form factors
and possibly in a single system along with
speeding new technology into felded
systems are key goals within DoD. Never-
theless, afer championing the idea more
than a decade ago it has litle to show for
it. Te technology to make this
happen appears to be available
now or soon will be although
major challenges will obvious-
ly have to be surmounted. Te
other key factor as outlined in
the next article is DoDs deep-
ly-entrenched process in which
the Army, Navy, and Air Force
develop systems for their own
use with litle or no regard for
their potential application by
other services. Te result has
been a large number of systems
developed by diferent prime
contractors that share noth-
ing more than their intended
function. As the need to pro-
vide greater functionality and
performance in smaller spaces,
using less power, with lighter,
smaller hardware is essential,
and since the DoD budget will
be under the knife in the next decade or
more, now is the time for change.
Human nature notwithstanding, or-
chestrating the functions of radar and EW
systems with the same hardware poses
fundamental problems, as these systems
are vastly diferent in many respects. For
example, radars operate at defned fre-
quencies such as L-band, S-band, and
X-band, while EW systems operate over
multiple octaves of bandwidth, potentially
from HF well into the millimeter-wave
region. Tey have diferent performance
requirements as well, from dynamic range
to sensitivity, latency, RF output power,
beamwidth, and many others. So achiev-
ing optimum radar and EW performance
with a single system seems at the least con-
ficting and at worst impossible.
Both systems do however process
massive quantities of data, act on them
at incredible speeds, use the same type of
components from active and passive RF
and microwave components to analog-
to-digital and digital-to-analog convert-
ers, FPGAs, general purpose and graphics
processors, data storage, and communi-
cations buses. Radar systems employ an
AESA architecture and EW systems are
likely to follow suit, and it is likely to make
its frst appearance in the Next Generation
Jammer program if not sooner.
Unfortunately, this is where the simi-
larity ends, and the frst outlier is the an-
tenna, which in both cases will be a phased
array (i.e. AESA). But radar and EW will
have difculty sharing a single aperture, as
In the ACT approach to array development, building block array panels (a) are common for a wide variety of array
applications. The array in (b) is a large array built from interconnected building block panels.
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their frequencies will be diferent so their
elements will be of widely varying sizes
and spacings. In addition, antennas forced
to cover very broad bandwidths sacrifce
gain and sensitivity, and the antenna will
need to have both very wide and very nar-
row beamwidths. In addition to these and
other technical challenges is the question of
which system gets priority. Tat is, it is cer-
tainly possible that both systems will need
to operate simultaneously, so sofware-de-
livered what-if scenarios must be orches-
trated, which might prove unacceptable in
certain circumstances.
When all possibilities have been ex-
plored, the end result may be that there
is in fact no Holy Grail: systems will share
components and sofware to the greatest
extent possible, but a one-box solu-
tion may result in more problems than
solutions. Multiple apertures and other
seemingly redundant components will be
required. Tis still would be a giant step
forward, especially if these systems were
designed by a team that could (and would
be willing to) work together so that their
end results could be used across multiple
platforms and services without wholesale
redesign.
Fortunately, there is now an architec-
ture available that at least from a digi-
tal perspective provides a way to build
systems using a common, COTS-based
form factor: VPX. Te VPX form factor
(also an ANSI standard) that in its devel-
opmental form was called VITA 46 and
was defned under the auspices of the
VME International Trade Association
(VITA), is a VME-based architecture
that provides support for switched fab-
rics and uses a unique high-speed con-
nector. It has broad industry support and
was created for defense applications. It is
compatible with VMEs 6U and 3U form
factors and supports PCI mezzanine card
(PMC), XMC mezzanines (PMC with
high-speed serial fabric interconnect),
and FMC mezzanine cards.
It is designed to be integrated with
PCI Express and 10-Gigabit Ethernet and
is forward-looking as it can be integrated
with very-high-speed switched fabrics like
Infniband that embrace multiprocessing
and local communications between mul-
tiple digital signal processors. It also em-
bodies the ruggedness required of defense
systems, various cooling schemes, gener-
al-purpose and graphics processors, DSP,
FPGAs, and various atributes specifc to
defense applications. Te OpenVPX sys-
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Multi-function Systems Inching Closer
tem specifcation ratifed by ANSI in 2010
improves on interoperability issues that
resulted from the way in which VPX was
created (that is, by diferent manufactur-
ers instrumental in creating the standard).
In short, VPX is the form factor that will
drive COTS-based systems in the fu-
ture, and will beneft any movement to-
ward multi-function systems.
DARPA Calls for Change
DARPA has long been hammered for
spending taxpayer dollars on research
that is either somewhat other-worldly or
produces nothing of substance. However,
such is the nature of basic
research, without which
consumers would not have
smartphones or the transis-
tors that power them. DAR-
PA has also had some huge
successes, two of which are
directly related to defense.
Its MIMIC program in the
1980s drove the development
GaAs MMICs and ultimately
created a multi-billion-dollar
industry. Its multiple gallium
nitride development pro-
grams have driven this tech-
nology into the market far
faster than would have been
possible if industry alone was
championing it.
Te results of its Arrays at Commercial
Timescales (ACT) program announced
in the spring may not deliver the same
level of results but may help pave the way
to overcoming the stasis in DoD pro-
curement that in turn may make possible
multi-function systems, speed new tech-
nology into the feld, and allow systems
to be built with greater cross-platform
utility. Te goal of this multi-faceted R&D
program is to create antenna arrays using
COTS components that can be deployed
in a time-scale more like that of com-
mercial or consumer products so that
technological developments can be imple-
mented rapidly within felded systems.
DARPA doesnt mince words on the
subject of how current systems are de-
ployed, frankly stating that antenna arrays
have come at a severe cost in terms of sys-
tem development time and the ability to up-
grade capabilities in the feld. Research must
push past the traditional barriers that lead to
10-year array development cycles, 20- to 30-
year static life cycles, and costly service life
extension programs. It also acknowledges
that the gap in performance is widening be-
tween RF capabilities of felded systems and
the rapidly-evolving digital electronics that
surround it. DARPA specifcally calls out
the need to abandon heavily compartmen-
talized and siloed array system develop-
ment, procurement, and sustainment.
Participants in the ACT program will
develop a digitally-interconnected build-
ing block from which larger systems can
be formed, called the Common Module,
and a reconfgurable RF interface that
will be scalable and customizable for each
application without a full redesign. Tis
DARPA hopes, will end the era of one-
of antenna array programs that do not
consider reuse, because from 70% to 80%
of the arrays development cycle cost will
be built into the Common Module. DAR-
PA assumes that greater digital content in
RF systems can achieve an unprecedent-
ed level of commonality between systems
and across application requirements.
ACT will demonstrate how develop-
ments in RF and digital electronics can
enhance commonality of an underlying
component base, and personalization of
the Common Module for a specifc use
will include frequency, bandwidth, po-
larization, RF power level, scan angle, ge-
ometry, beam characteristics, and number
of elements. Te last facet of the program
will create scalable arrays not just within
one platform but across multiple plat-
forms by stitching together array panels
to generate coherent, spatially-distributed
radiation and transferring data between
them digitally via fber to achieve coher-
ent power aggregation.
In Conclusion.
Te digital and RF components are
ready, a form factor, signal buses and fabrics,
signal processing algorithms, AESA archi-
tecture, and more or less everything else
required to take a stab at creating multifunc-
tion systems are either ready now or soon
could be. So the only missing link is the
willingness on the part of DoD to change
the way it does business. And that may be
the greatest challenge of them all.
A traditional phased array architecture on the left and the ACT version on the right.
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Military Microwave
DIGEST

Burning Down the Silo:
An Opinion
By BARRY MANZ Editor
W
HEN IT COMES to spending
taxpayer money, the U.S. De-
partment of Defense is a master.
It is also the acknowledged champion in ce-
menting procurement processes in stone and
maintaining fefdoms in its various branches.
Te later two atributes are hindrances that
must either be changed, at least partially, or
the development of key technologies will suf-
fer as a result.
Of the many technological advances
whose development DoD hopes to rapidly
accelerate, creation of multi-function systems
that would integrate radar, electronic warfare,
and communications with signifcant sharing
of hardware is somewhere in the top fve. Not
only would this approach potentially allow
systems to be created that could be used on
multiple platforms without a complete rede-
sign as is generally the case today, it would
give designers throughout the design, devel-
opment, and testing food chain a roadmap
to follow that would result in reusable sub-
systems and sofware. Finally, it would almost
certainly meet stringent SWaP requirements
today and in the future.
Blasting Through Bedrock
Based on the simple description in the
previous paragraph, the task would certainly
be extraordinarily challenging, and purely
technological. But however daunting the
technical challenge, it is equaled or even ex-
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Military Microwave
DIGEST

Burning Down the Silo: An Opinion
ceeded by the human one posed by the rock-sol-
id, seemingly-immovable structure fnely honed
by DoD to develop and procure electronic sys-
tems of every kind. It virtually guarantees that
there will be no synergy between services and
continuation of the one-of, essentially propri-
etary designs developed by one the prime con-
tractor winning each award. It may be possible
to employ the resulting systems on diferent
platforms, but this would be pure serendipity
rather than accomplished intentionally.
Of course, this stovepipe or siloed ap-
proach is hardly limited to DoD: It is widely
practiced by other agencies in the U.S. and
throughout the world, as well as within massive
industrial organizations whose disparate divi-
sions ofen have no idea what the others are do-
ing either because there is no mandate to do so
or because they sometimes compete with each
other and have no incentive to cooperate.
Regardless of how frmly rooted this mind-
set, the end of the fabled DoD stovepipe may of
necessity be coming near, or at least be under
threat for the reasons noted earlier. However,
unpeeling this onion is not a task for the faint of
heart or anyone seeking long-term government
employment leading to a comfortable retire-
ment. Tere are multiple reasons for this seem-
ingly insurmountable challenge.
Te most obvious is that DoDs procure-
ment process is work crafed over decades to
suit the specifc purposes of DoD and its prime
contractors. It ensures that there will always be
multiple manufacturers with the ability to build
radars, EW systems, aircraf, and other complex
systems. Tis in itself is a great idea, as having
few U.S. sources (or even one) for these crucial
systems would pose a dire threat to national se-
curity. Te defense industry has already consoli-
dated to a large extent. It also keeps politicians
happy, as they can report to their constituents
that they are bringing home the bacon, and
ensures the employment of hundreds of thou-
sands of people throughout the country. Last
but not least, it serves the interests of the Air
Force, Army, and Navy, each of which wants its
own systems built to its own specifcations that
they alone possess, and eliminates the annoy-
ance of working with other services. So in this
context the process works.
Unfortunately, it also results in a massive bu-
reaucratic morass required to serve every unique
program, which is diferent than any other pro-
gram and thus consumes lots of money (but
employs lots of people). It makes it extremely
difcult to rapidly enhance systems in the feld
with the latest technology as each one has difer-
ent requirements, eliminating the possibility of
across-the-board technology upgrades. In this
context, it works poorly, and slowly. DoD recog-
nizes the problem and has no interest in delay-
ing deployment of any system or upgrade, but
the way systems are developed precludes this
from happening, a fact it has frankly acknowl-
edged many times.
Like most major upheavals, broad-based
change will come about only when there is no
alternative, and it seems at least possible that
this day is near. DoD will unquestionably sufer
cuts in spending over the next decade, some un-
foreseen circumstance notwithstanding. Cuts
are already being made in pieces even though
the details of widespread cancelations, reduc-
tions, or postponements have yet to be disclosed
or perhaps even determined. Not only will this
impact troop strength, readiness, education, and
every other aspect of military afairs, it will im-
pact the realization of four core technological
DoD goals: modernization and increased per-
formance, connectivity, multi-functionality, and
multi-platform compatibility.
Tese budget cuts are occurring while the
Mideast is burning, terrorism is morphing into a
decentralized and potentially more lethal threat
while spreading its tentacles into North Africa,
Russia is moving further away from the West,
access to and control of the South China Sea is
hotly-contested, and Irans centrifuges are spin-
ning away. If there was ever a time for positive
change in procurement leading to more capable,
easily upgraded, multi-platform systems that ft
within a constricting budget, this is it.
sss
The end of the
fabled DoD
stovepipe may
of necessity be
coming near,
or at least be
under threat.
sss
Like most major
upheavals,
broad-based
change will
come about only
when there is no
alternative, and
it seems at least
possible that this
day is near.
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Military Microwave
DIGEST
DoD Budget Cuts and Reality
W
ITH THE PENTAGON BUDGET under the
microscope, an insightful exercise is to look its ad-
mitedly huge expenditure (about the same as the
gross domestic product of Switzerland) in terms of its relation-
ship to Americas gross domestic product and where it stands
in comparison to previous years. Te result is rather surprising
in many respects and provides some perspective that typically
doesnt appear in media coverage.
In 2012, the U.S. spend 677.8 billion on defense, which is 55.4%
higher than in 2002, and about $316 billion more than in 1963.
Defense spending versus non-defense spending from 1963 to 2013
is shown in Figure 1. Spending over the period peaked during the
Vietnam and Cold wars, declining until shortly afer the September
11, 2001 atacks, afer which it dramatically increased to its high-
est level in 2011 and then fell of aferward. However, its position
within total national cash outlays between 1950 and 2009 shows
the defense budget in another light, as shown in Figure 2.
In 1954 it represented almost 70% of the federal budget and
although it has risen and fallen over the years has trended down-
ward. Te 2012 defense budget was between 6 and 7 times larger
than the $106 billion military budget of China and more than the
military spending of the next 20 countries combined. As a per-
centage of GDP it was 4% in 2005, which represented a historic
low since it peaked in 1944 at 37.8% of GDP. Its historical low
was reached between 1999 and 2001 at 3.0%, and even during the
peak of the Vietnam War in 1968 it reached 9.4%. In 2013 it is 4%.
When compared to mandatory spending that includes Social
Security, Medicare and Medicaid, other entitlement programs,
and interest (Figure 3) it looks truly puny. So why the feverish
atention to cuting the budget of the organization whose job is
FIGURE 1
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 2
NY, NJ, Southeast
Doug Markhouse
Phone (914) 714-4213
douglasmeow@aol.com
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Jerry Bleich
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Military Microwave
DIGEST
Aethercomm ............................................................................9
Anritsu Company ............................................cover 4
AR .................................................................................cover 2
CPI Beverly .............................................................................21
CTS Corporation ...............................................................37
dBm ............................................................................................23
Emerson Connectivity .................................................31
Integrated Microwave .................................................26
IW ...................................................................................................13
Krytar ..........................................................................................29
Meca ................................................................................................5
Micro Lambda Wireless .............................................15
Microwave Product Digest ......................................35
Mini-Circuits ............................................................ 16-17
MPI ................................................................................................14
NIC ...............................................................................cover 3
Planar .............................................................................................7
Pole Zero ................................................................................25
Richardson RFPD ..............................................................11
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TRM Microwave ..............................................................18
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A D V E R T I S E R S I N D E X
EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICE
385 Sylvan Avenue, Suite 16,
Englewood Cliffs,
New Jersey 07632
(201) 569-5870
Fax: (201) 569-6684
to protect the nation? Te simple reason is
that the military looks big. It has big ships,
big airplanes, big facilities, enormously ex-
pensive aircraf, and its own massive entitle-
ments. And like every other agency in the
public sector from top to botom, it wastes
a lot of money on duplicative activity, pro-
grams that dont make sense, and no doubt
hundreds or thousands of other things.
As former Secretary of Defense Robert
Gates said in 2011: Tis department sim-
ply cannot risk continuing down the same
path where our investment priorities, bu-
reaucratic habits and lax atitude towards
costs are increasingly divorced from the real
threats of today, the growing perils of tomor-
row and the nations grim fnancial outlook.
Gates had proposed a budget that would cut
the cost of many DoD programs and poli-
cies, including reports, IT infrastructure,
fuel, weapon programs, its bloated bureau-
cracies, and personnel.
Examples of DoD spending blunders in-
clude spending $681,387 on a program con-
ducted by the Air Force Ofce of Scientifc
This department simply
cannot risk continuing
down the same path
where our investment
priorities, bureaucratic
habits and lax attitude
towards costs are
increasingly divorced from
the real threats of today,
the growing perils of
tomorrow and the nations
grim nancial outlook.
Robert Gates
Military Microwave
DIGEST
Research, which confrmed that men bearing frearms appear taller,
stronger, and manlier. Te same ofce also spent $300,000 on a
study that concluded that the frst bird on earth probably had black
feathers. DoD also sponsored the creation of an iPhone application
to help people optimize their cafeine level, even though at least two
similar applications were already available A failed geothermal proj-
ect at the Naval Air Station in Fallon, NV, cost DoD $9.12 million,
and the Ofce of Naval Research conducted a $450,000 study that
revealed that unintelligent robots are unable to maintain a babys at-
tention. And of course there are DoDs infamous cost over-runs, with
the Joint Strike Fighter leading the way and followed by many others.
However, it is far from alone in wasting taxpayer dollars. Te
Social Security Administrations 2011 Performance and Account-
ability Report found $2.11 billion in overpaid Social Security
benefts and that it overpaid old-age, survivors, and disability
insurance benefts by $934 million in fscal year 2010 alone. In
2010, 117,000 people received $850 million in cash benefts by
double-dipping into Social Securitys disability insurance and the
federal unemployment insurance programs.
Mississippi improperly spent about $7.1 million in federal
highway safety funds between 2007 and 2010, and in the same year
$6 billion 17% of federal user fees -- were diverted from highway
and road projects to pay for mass transit, even though transit ac-
counted for only about 1% of the nations surface travel. Poor over-
sight at the Federal Highway Administration allowed state ofcials
in Florida, Michigan, and Pennsylvania to pay $125.6 million in
highway repair stimulus money to contractors without proof that
the work was done correctly or even completed.
A 2012 report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration identifed $757 million in fraudulent tax refunds
to prisoners in 2010, poor oversight allowed more than 1,000
Pennsylvania prisoners to collect weekly unemployment benefts
over a four-month period that cost taxpayers $7 million. In 2012,
the Department of Agriculture spent $300,000 to promote caviar
produced in Idaho and the FCC spent $2.2 billion in 2012 pro-
viding phones to low-income Americansup from $819 million
in 2008 -- and then found out that 41% of the six million recipi-
ents were either ineligible or had not even proved their eligibility.
Since 1998, nuclear power companies have paid a nuclear waste
disposal fee to the Department of Energy even though it has not
put any waste into long-term storage and afer 14 years of lawsuits
in 2013 it reimbursed several companies $160 million.
Te United States Postal Service lost $15.9 billion in 2012 al-
though career employees and postal support employees all got rais-
es. Te Ofce of Personnel Management reported that the federal
government paid more than $156 million in 2011 to employees
working as representatives for government unions. Te U.S. Secret
Service spent $23 million to buy new luxury parade limousines
without competitive bidding and the White House is preparing for
a $376 million renovation and plans to construct a second Oval
Ofce for the President to use during the renovation. And last (but
far from all), the General Services Administrations poor oversight
of 33 courthouse construction projects between 2000 to 2010 cost
taxpayers $835 million in extra construction costs.
Looking at the proposed efects of the sequester, its difcult
not to conclude that DoD is geting the short end of the stick.
Under sequester, between 2013 and 2023 spending on defense
will be reduced by $440 billion or 50% of the total reduction,
while mandatory spending (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Se-
curity) will be cut by $160 billion or 18.2%, and nondiscretion-
ary spending will be cut by $280 billion or 31.8%.
Interestingly enough, DoD also generates a considerable
amount of annual revenue from overseas sales, which in fscal
year 2012 was more than $65 billion representing 75% of the
global arms market. It is predicted to increase substantially in
coming years. In recent years, according to a report in the New
York Times, it has literally skyrocketed, dwarfng Russia and Chi-
na, as shown in Figure 4.
We just thought you should know.
FIGURE 4
DoD Overseas Sales
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