REQUEST FOR INDUSTRY COMMENTS ON U.S. AIR FORCE PROPOSED ADOPTION OF APCO PROJECT 25 AS BASELINE LAND MOBILE RADIO INTEROPERABILITY STANDARD POC Scott Jack, USAF Land Mobile Radio Manager, (618) 256-5803. This synopsis is issued for information and planning purposes only, a solicitation will not be issued. Headquarters Air Force Command, Control, Communications, Computer Agency is considering a recommendation to adopt the Association of Public-safety Communications Officials, International (APCO) Project 25 and the associated Telecommunications Service Bulletins (TSB), Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) Standards, and Interim Federal Standards (IFS) as the baseline land mobile radio (LMR) interoperability standard for all future USAF LMR requirements and acquisitions. References: A. National telecommunications and information administration (NTIA) land mobile spectrum efficiency plan (Oct 93) B. NTIA manual Background: 1. The demand for frequency spectrum allocation by the commercial communications industry is resulting in increasing pressure for the federal government to release more and more of its dedicated radio frequency (RF) spectrum. As a result, NTIAs office of spectrum management (OSM), which is responsible for managing the federal government's use of the RF spectrum, has mandated the migration of LMRs from wideband (25 khz) to narrowband (12.5 khz) operation by the year 2008. The migration requires replacement of the air forces 155,000 LMR radios and much of the associated network equipment over a period of 10 or more years. 2. The following factors are driving the future USAF LMR architecture and policy: A. Frequency spectrum congestion. The U.S. and foreign nations which host U.S. forces have initiated programs to improve spectrum efficiency. B. NTIA initiatives. (1) Mandatory migration of LMR networks to narrowband operation by 2008 (ref a). (2) Strong encouragement to adopt LMR trunking as a spectrum efficiency measure (ref a). (3) Requirement for new users to share existing trunking networks (commercial or government) if practicable (ref b). C. New standards. Open narrowband LMR standards and products are emerging to replace existing analog wideband LMR standards and products. D. Frequency allocations. The Air Force Frequency Management Agency issued initial information to MAJCOMs on LMR migration to narrowband operation. In summary, this reference states that new LMR radio systems put into service after 1 Jan 95 must be narrowband (12.5 khz) and that any expansion of existing wideband (25 khz) systems must be capable of both narrowband and wideband operation. 3. Existing USAF LMR trunking systems are built to different proprietary standards depending on vendor. These diverse systems create interoperability issues for deployed forces. However, most existing analog conventional LMRs are interoperable provided they're designed for the same frequency range. Proactive actions are necessary to prevent interoperability issues from increasing in the future as AF (and the world) moves to digital systems which can have dissimilar voice coders, modulation, and access schemes. 4. Four international initiatives address narrowband frequency LMR standards: APCO project 25 (U.S.), TETRA (European), IDRA (Japan), and DMIRS (Canada). Of these initiatives, the U.S. led Project 25 (P25) is the furthest developed. The LMR market is moving from analog systems to narrowband digital systems based on open standards. P25 is in the best position to be the dominant standard in the U.S. 5. The Air Force needs a coherent LMR interoperability policy and based on this need the Air Force is considering the following: Effective immediately, APCO Project 25 is the mandatory LMR standard for all future USAF LMR requirements and acquisitions in order to achieve interoperability, to comply with NTIA LMR narrowband plan, and to enhance spectrum efficiency. Companies responding to this announcement shall provide their comments in writing to the following address: HQ AFC4A/SYXM (ATTN: Scott Jack) 203 West Losey St, RM 3070 Scott AFB, IL 62225-5234. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this announcement or otherwise pay for the information. Do not include any proprietary information as submission will not be returned. Closing date for submission of a response is (30 days from the initial date of CBD announcement).

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