NATICK, Mass.-The United States military is the largest proponent and purchaser of software-defined radio equipment, according to a new report from technology market research and consulting firm VDC.
SDR shipments to the U.S. military are expected to reach more than $1.7 billion by 2007, representing a compound annual growth rate of 48.4 percent between 2003 and 2007. The Department of Defense’s JRTS program, which was started seven years ago in an effort to coordinate replacement of 750,000 U.S. military radios with 250,000 to 320,000 software-defined radios, accounts for most of the SDR procurements in the United States. The JTRS Program is expected to spend nearly $1.4 billion on SDR by 2007.
“The JTRS program continues to invigorate the SDR market with new products and technologies,” said Chad Hart, senior telecom/data analyst at VDC. “These recent contracts will help to further entrench traditional military players like General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. However, these recent awards will also help catapult several smaller SDR vendors’ revenues such as PrismTech and Vanu as well as create many new opportunities for many other emerging players outside of the contract teams.”
