You can't say that "radio is a solved problem" without knowing the military's requirements for these radios.
For example, we were working on radios that could self-organize into networks on frequencies they picked dynamically and keep on the same frequencies while facing a changing RF environment because they were in a convoy driving through the desert with a high powered jammer randomly stomping on everything.
And these aren't fanciful requirements. You're in a country whose government you just toppled--you can't count on the civilian frequency allocations. The military really doesn't want to keep track of every squad's frequency assignment manually. The radios are always on the move, in often challenging terrain (mountains, etc.). The enemy has jammers and countermeasures. Even if not every radio needs every one of these capabilities, the military needs an overall communications architecture that accommodates all of these functions.
For example, we were working on radios that could self-organize into networks on frequencies they picked dynamically and keep on the same frequencies while facing a changing RF environment because they were in a convoy driving through the desert with a high powered jammer randomly stomping on everything.
And these aren't fanciful requirements. You're in a country whose government you just toppled--you can't count on the civilian frequency allocations. The military really doesn't want to keep track of every squad's frequency assignment manually. The radios are always on the move, in often challenging terrain (mountains, etc.). The enemy has jammers and countermeasures. Even if not every radio needs every one of these capabilities, the military needs an overall communications architecture that accommodates all of these functions.