The Joint Tactical Networking Center (JTNC), in collaboration with several Department of Defense service labs and test agencies, announced initial operational capability for the Tactical Communications Marketplace (TCM) Oct. 1, giving registered DoD users a modernized approach to critical procurement decisions.

The TCM provides a single source for commercial vendors in the defense industry to display their latest tactical radios, waveform technology and other tactical communication products.

“Service Acquisition Authorities now have a new tool for making best-value procurement decisions via a secure, cloud-based portal,” said JTNC Director Jeff Mercer. “The TCM is supporting the modernization of DoD acquisition and providing actionable data for informed purchasing decisions using a systematic verification approach while giving commercial vendors the opportunity to showcase their innovative technology.”

The TCM lets users filter and search for tactical communications products based on desired capability characteristics or attributes. Some selected products will undergo a tailorable capability characterization and technical analysis process designed to provide insight on the product’s capabilities.

“The method to evaluating communication products across multiple and critical domain elements, the Capability Characterization process will be extremely informative for acquisition authorities prior to procurement,” said Director of JTNC DoD Communications Standards and Technical Analysis Bill Brickner. “Using a consistent and repeatable process, the characterization intends to capture the extent to which particular techniques and technologies support the designated capability attributes, functions, specifications, or characteristics of a product.”

Since March, the JTNC has been working with industry to get Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) and Non-Developmental Item (NDI) communications offerings into the TCM before its official launch.

The TCM will enable the early identification, characterization, and reporting on innovative capabilities that can fulfill critical capability gaps and will ultimately speed delivery to the warfighter.

To learn more about the TCM, go to jtnc.force.com/

ABOUT THE JTNC

As part of the DoD, and under executive management of the Army’s Program Executive Office, Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T), the JTNC ensures secure, interoperable, and resilient tactical capabilities aligned to modular open architectures in support of Service, Multi-Service, and Coalition forces.​​ Headquartered in San Diego, California, the JTNC executes its mission by developing standards in collaboration with government and industry partners, conducting technical analysis in accordance with DoD policies, and maintaining a DoD Information Repository (IR). For more information, visit: www.jtnc.mil or follow us on Twitter at: twitter.com/DODJTNC

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