Embracing the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) for communications terminals of the 21st century

Spurred by a decreasing defense budget, a need for reducing the procurement cycle, the desire for rapid assimilation of new technology and a requirement to conduct joint-service coordinated operations, the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) has been designed to meet the warfighter's needs while overcoming past deficiencies. Communications terminals have been plagued with lack of commonality in hardware and software, resulting in inefficiencies in re-use, manufacturing, logistics, scaleability, procurement, interoperability, maintenance and training. Communications terminals are typically based on proprietary vendor products and are unable to efficiently accommodate changes in waveform format and protocol of emerging broadcast capabilities. The JTA combines the strategies of the joint services into a standards-based architecture, relying heavily on widely-accepted clearly-defined commercial standards. The JTA systematically addresses shortfalls by mandating a flexible, scaleable and open architecture. The open systems architecture focuses on modularity by function, not by waveform or network. This open architecture allows a natural progression of module improvement with advances in technology, enabling those companies with expertise to compete at the module level to enhance performance and reduce cost. By providing hardware and software in common modular form factors, terminals can be designed around a catalog of common modules. Through the use of software down-load, terminals can accept changes in format and protocol as networks migrate to a common format, even to the point of over-the-air reprogramming. Adoption of the JTA fosters interoperability between communications systems, while dramatically reducing cost, development and fielding time and ensuring a migration path into the future. Compliance with the JTA is now included as an evaluated requirement in all acquisitions.