Army officials are moving ahead with a halt, fix, pivot approach to address vulnerability and technical concerns with its tactical network, looking for industry input on long-term solutions to improve resiliency and embracing short-term programs for the most pressing communication needs.
Following a period of mission analysis and user feedback from operational units, leadership from the Army’s Program Executive Office – Command Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T) are ready to move on from the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program, which did not meet needs to fight against peer adversaries in contested battle space, according to officials at a Monday demo event at Ft. Myer in Arlington, Va.
“What we’re after is continuous adaptation; a network that will allow you to adapt and not be fixed to a particular solution. A one-size-fits-all that’s fielded over the next 20 years may not be the answer,” Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, director of architecture, operations, networks, and space for the Office of the Army Chief Information Officer/G-6, said. “What we want is a network that can be installed, maintained and operated by soldiers.”
Gallagher said officials considered several options to address challenges with the network, which was not meeting needs due to its complexity, lack of interoperability, limited anti-jamming capabilities and vulnerability to hacking.
Discussions centered on continuing on the current network path, with capabilities set through 2032,or accelerating WIN-T to try meet pure fleet needs.
“Or we could do what we call targeted halts and focus on figuring out what we need to do to fight tonight, and then pivot to a whole new construct,” Gallagher said. “That new construct is a new architecture. It’s a new way of doing business. It’s a way of opening ourselves to new solutions. And that’s what we’ve settled on.”
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley gave the go ahead to the “halt, fix, pivot approach” in September 2017, including stopping WIN-T procurement at the end of 2018 and meeting fielding needs through 2021.
Besides WIN-T, PEO-C3T officials will do targeted, immediate halts of maneuver radio and Command Post of the Future programs.
“There’s next-generation applications that provide us better decision making tools,” Gallagher said.
Industry partners will have an opportunity to assist with the “fix” and “pivot” aspects of the new tactical network approach.
PEO-C3T leadership will seek to leverage readily proven capabilities, including commercial off-the-shelf solutions that can be tested to see how they scale and improve warfighting capabilities.
Potential “fix” capabilities include radios with advanced networking waveforms, radio gateways, handheld radios and advanced software.
Acquisition officials will see future deliveries from non-traditional vendors with smaller, more flexible competitive acquisition structures, according to Joe Welch, PEO-C3T technical director.
In its ‘pivot’ approach, Army officials will focus on new programs to meet four lines of effort including improving mobility of command posts, the Unified Network Transport solution, Mission Command Application Suite and Joint Coalition Operability.
Gallagher singled out the Unified Network Transport program as particular point of emphasis, meant to act as next-generation tactical network to improve advanced line-of-sight capabilities, multi-path solution sets, more dynamic spectrum allocation and low probability of radio intercept.
The end goal for ‘halt, fix, pivot’ is to establish a tactical network that is resilient, standards-based and interoperable, while re-looking at legacy requirement to see why current capabilities aren’t meeting operational needs, according to Gallagher.
“In many cases, we’ve held ourselves hostage by the way we crafted those requirements. We’re trying to untether ourselves from some of the requirements that may no longer be valid, and really got those informed future requirements based on our soldier and leadership feedback.”
PEO-C3T officials showcased several innovative efforts in place right now to deliver short-term solutions to improve the tactical network.
The Army’s Nett Warrior program has received an update with a new Android Tactical Assault Kit, which improves the ease of use for GPS mapping on smartphones plugged into the tactical network. The new system mainly handles ‘secure but classified’ data, but can be configured to deliver secret data when needed.
Col. Greg Coile, a PEO-C3T project manager, detailed the new Transportable Tactical Command Communication system to replace cumbersome, heavy metal antennas used in satellite communications.
The bubble-like structure, built by Cubic-owned [CUB] GATR, can be folded into three bags and then set up in about 20 minutes while retaining high-level communication capabilities, according to Coile.
Col. James Ross, a PEO-C3T project manager for tactical radios, showcased the Army’s latest handheld, manpack and small form fit radios that allow for extended communication networks utilizing the Multiple User Objective System (MUOS).
“This is unique. This is kind of a game changer for radios,” Ross said.
MUOS-connected radios use a beyond line-of-sight waveform with satellite connections.
Maj. Gen. David Bassett, Program Executive Officer for PEO C3T, reiterated that the new radios are key to meet the most pressing warfighter communication needs on the tactical network.
“You’re starting to see the maturation of these next-generation radios, which do give us a great deal of flexibility. The radios that we’re looking at buying now, both the manpack radio and the two-channel leader radios, have shown themselves to be able to run a pretty wide range of waveforms,” Bassett said.