El PASO, Texas–The Army is evaluating whether it can connect voice, video and data on the move from soldiers at the company level up to the brigade commander and beyond to division headquarters–and whether it adds to the effectiveness of their operations.
General Dynamics [GD] is the prime contractor on the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment 2, or WIN-T Inc 2, Friday completed its Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) here at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. It is the initial network-on the move down to the company level. The backbone network system is part of the Network Integration Evaluation 12.2 here.
The 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Div. (2/1AD) is using the system in a series of operational scenarios here at White Sands, as is the 101st Airborne Div. (Air Assault) at Ft. Campbell, Ky.
One thing WIN-T Inc 2 does is embeds high-speed intranet in commander’s vehicles, so the command post is where the commander is, driving down a road, stopped at a logistics area or up on a mesa.
For 2/1 Brigade Commander Col. Daniel Pinnell it means from his command vehicle he has Secure Internet Protocol Router (SIPRNet) connectivity to the network, using the Joint Capabilities Release (JCR) on Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2). JCR is the latest Northrop Grumman [NOC] product for FBCB2.
Pinnell said he can talk to his staff in the TOC, monitor the chat between dispersed companies, and check on things such as fuel and ammunition–just as if he was stationary in the TOC. Even talk to division headquarters at the 101st Airborne.
An earlier version, WIN-T Inc. 1, completes fielding in June. This provides networking at-the-halt, previously called the Joint Network Node (JNN).
WIN-T Inc 2 allows mission command on the move, whereas JNN was stationary, took a long time to set up and needed a large satellite dish.
Feedback from the 2/1 soldiers, plus Army test results will guide Army leadership in making acquisition decisions–an important part of the NIE.
Soldiers here said it’s critical for them to get their feedback right, since the equipment they’re evaluating will likely go to soldiers just like them who will go in harm’s way.
“There’s no holds barred” in the soldier feedback, said Sgt. Steven Howell, an Abrams tank gunner outside the 2/1 brigade headquarters. “Soldiers hold their non-biased opinion until the last part of the test,” he said.
Inside the Abrams, HMS Manpack and 117G Harris [HRS] radios are located at the loader’s station, allowing the tank to xcommunicate with multiple platforms, over the advanced Soldiers Radio Waveform and the legacy Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS).
There have been a few problems, Howell said, but they were ironed out working directly with the developers ahead of the first full up mission.
Not far behind Howell’s tank was the Tactical Communications Node (TCN), a large truck, providing wide area network access to fixed and mobile command posts from division through brigade, said Capt. Devlin Boyter, a signal company commander.
The TCN truck has a satellite transmission terminal, an off board 30K generator and a 15k onboard generator, and provides a lot of redundancies, he said. The truck may look simple, but it takes 400 hours of schooling to learn the specifics.
Pvt. Elizabeth Manning works with the TCN keeping communications going, and will go to the school this year to learn more.
Lt. Brian Boyle, Manning’s platoon leader, says things are going well as they learn the ins and outs of the TCN, “another tool in the toolbox.”
Back in the TOC, Maj. Steve Dail, the brigade S-6, or communications officer, runs support for brigade communications. It’s like the back office at Verizon [VZ] or at your company, he said. He watches over the brigade’s servers, checks cyber activities and the functioning of classified and unclassified networks.
Also, there’s a help desk that gets 50-75 calls every hour, though “about 90 percent are solved in this room,” he said.
Next door is the Network Operations Cell, checking the lower tactical internet, the handheld soldier radios, for example. Cell capabilities can be used for planning, by adding terrain data to know precisely where radio nodes are or to check line-of-sight routes. The cell also conducts data mining “all the time,” to help brigade staff or intelligence officers examine context or look over past events.
General Dynamics and Thales manufacture the AN/PRC-154 Rifleman Radio and GD and Rockwell Collins [COL] produce the AN/PRC-155 JTRS Manpack radios. These systems form the baseline for the Army’s on-the-move tactical network. Both the PRC-155 and PRC-154 radios are planned for deployment with the first integrated group of network technologies to be fielded this fall.
Both the Rifleman and Manpack radios are in low rate initial production: 6,250 Rifleman Radios and 100 Manpack radios. More than 700 JTRS HMS networking radios are deployed at NIE 12.2.
The radios are important part of the biannual NIE series, which for 12.2 began in April and wraps up June 8.
The NIE focuses on solidifying the network baseline with the formal test of WIN-T Inc 2, and also will validate the connectivity, architecture, and components of Capability Set 13, the first integrated group of Network technologies to be fielded to eight brigade combat teams beginning this fall.