User services of tactical communications in the digital age

Increasing demands on an extensive amount of digital data and information flows for C4I is forcing the modern armies to freeze and omit EUROCOM based tactical area communications system and to develop new concepts based on the adoption of modern communication systems such as ISDN, ATM described in the TACOMS Post 2000 Final Report II in NATO. ASELSAN, as a leading company in the military electronics arena, is following and participating all the activities of TACOMS Post 2000 together with Turkish Ministry of Defense. Turkey's tactical area communications system TASMUS is a mature and fielded system, which will satisfy future communication needs of the 21st century C4I systems. In this paper, we describe the basic features and user services of TASMUS. With the support of simultaneous voice and data capabilities, TASMUS aims to form mobile, survivable, flexible and secure network to support all the present and future communication requirements of the tactical commanders. Using the near real time data communications feature, TASMUS is also significant for the network-centric warfare applications such as tactical sensor and weapon systems, besides the communication needs of the Turkish Army.