I taught BOWMAN in 2005. I was considered a 'Guru', but then in the Kingdom of the blind...
I despaired of it so much I re-traded to avoid it and have used much better, simpler, smaller, cheaper, efficient COTS kit to communicate since.

BOWMAN has proved incredibly unpopular and with good reason. It is still unable to meet Comms requirements above Coy level in Helmand where the US PRC-117 is the radio of choice. If anyone wants to split hairs over RF propagation in an arid environment consider that with the right antenna and frequency you can talk around the world on 5W or less so surely the PRC 325 (HF) should be 'the radio' in Helmand.

I've seen BOWMAN HF (Groundwave) on 20W struggle over 2km out there. The power readings were high at the received end but due to the *** overhead and inability to maintain sync the result would be whats known in the trade as 'Donald duck underwater.'
Meanwhile, any enemy EW unit (standfast Terry), would be rubbing their hands together at these enormous 20W power spikes. Who cares if it's secure, if the lads are cranking the power up to the max to achieve comms (when infact the problems are more complex) then it's making the enemies job of locating them easier.

IMO the single worst piece of procurement in recent history.

Originally Posted by meridian

Thanks DG, always interesting to to get a balanced view

2 sugars

On its way mate!

20W for 2km, bloody hell

Whats the data rate, no, hang on, don't tell me

But I assume were not passing real time video :D

Originally Posted by meridian

20W for 2km, bloody hell

Whats the data rate, no, hang on, don't tell me

But I assume were not passing real time video :D

They are not playing with data much out there.

No need or can't ?

(Removed)

No need, they have a plethora of server based, (which BOWMAN is not BTW), applications out there which do the job just as well if not better.

Originally Posted by duplex

DG. I'd like to qualify why, OPSEC permitting, I think BOWMAN is SHYTE.

Sect level/VHF:
1) Large, heavy batteries with short lifespans.
2) Large bulky radio with poorly designed connections and switches.
3) Fragile GPS cable, regularly breaks.
4) Loose GPS component, regularly falls off.
5) Poor range. 5W = 5km (GSM 900 by contrast: 250mW = 30km)

HF:
1) Electric shocks
2) High 'message failure' rate resulting in messages getting silently dropped
3) Sync errors resulting in garbled digital speech
4) Complex menu tree.

Data:
1) Complex initialisation procedure takes inordinate length of time to set up a detachment.
2) Several 'old school' network security holes created through poor design.
3) (There's more but I won't for OPSEC.)

COMBAT:
1)This software is so bad it hurts. It is simply too complicated for the Battlefield.

Duplex - I agree with you there are issues, and you have highlighted them perfectly. Most of these issues have been around since 2005, and have been flagged up again and again. It IS getting better though.

At least I hope it gets better or I will be an old(er) man by the time they sort it!

DG

Originally Posted by DigitalGeek

Originally Posted by meridian

20W for 2km, bloody hell

Whats the data rate, no, hang on, don't tell me

But I assume were not passing real time video :D

They are not playing with data much out there.

I think you mean BOWMAN data? In that case you are correct.

Every Mil SATCOM data channel is choka, so much so PJHQ are renting Civvie ones and scrounging Bandwidth from the Yanks (no change there). There's more data systems in use than ever but none of them are BOWMAN...
The unofficial standard is Civvie SATCOM with Military Secure (Data capable) Telephony. Quitre simply because it works.

Originally Posted by DigitalGeek

No need, they have a plethora of server based, (which BOWMAN is not BTW), applications out there which do the job just as well if not better.

The P2P design seems the natural choice but I've yet to see BOWMAN do it's 'self healing' thing when a node disappears. Typically I've found on Regimental exercises that there will be one Det who've got their poo in a sock who spend all their time helping out everyone else who are in despair. Forget the RRB, that's the target if you want to take out a Regiment's Data Comms, the det that's working properly.