Navy's digital modular radio gets software boost.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie
• Position: Business + Industry News: COMMUNICATIONS

* General Dynamics Mission Systems' digital modular radio has been deployed on Navy ships for more than 10 years. With no replacement to the system in sight, the service has focused on upgrading the radios with modem capabilities.

One new feature unveiled this January is "high frequency dynamic routing," which increases the number of channels on the radio from four to eight, said James Crowe, the company's technical lead. This change is software-based, meaning that the radio itself can only support four people talking at a time. However, adding the extra four "virtual...