American troops in Grenada in 1983 could not contact air support because their radios used different frequencies, so they called via payphone and waited through a chain of intermediaries, with 19 killed and 89 wounded before help came. Comparable failures appeared in the 1991 Gulf War.

Officials created the Joint Tactical Radio System in 1997 to unify dozens of incompatible radios across services, yet the effort lasted more than 15 years, cost about 6 billion dollars, and was canceled. Early engineers warned the software radio technology was immature and packing all requirements into one box hit size weight and power limits, but each service kept adding needs. The canceled Ground Mobile Radio weighed over 200 pounds and required more space and power than its vehicles could provide.