By Ann Roosevelt

WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M.–The ability to connect Future Combat Systems (FCS) equipment to a network and pass imagery and data among small unit soldiers and on to higher command is being tested even as the Defense Department and the Army are working out acceleration plans for the most mature FCS equipment.

“This to me is the heart of the spin-out effort,” Lt. Col. John Matthews, project manager for capability integration for the Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) within the FCS program office told reporters here.

The Network Integration Kit (NIK) takes feeds from the FCS early-IBCT equipment and moves them into Army battle command systems.

The FCS spinouts are essentially providing better situational awareness and context to small units.

Small units are an important part of how the joint force will face the future, as described by the Capstone Concept for Joint Operations from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A goal for the future force is to create “greater adaptability and versatility,” the CCJO said (Defense Daily, Jan. 26).

It also is important to U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM), this week conducting a classified wargame evaluating the CCJO. The discussions include networking and small units.

JFCOM Deputy Commander Vice Adm. Robert Harward said, “We’ve looked–especially as we deal with this hybrid threat–the versatility, the flexibility, the connectivity of small units and what they allow us to do on the battle spaces is a significant game changer.”

JFCOM is mulling how to codify and inculcate that into the general-purpose force and how to train for it, Harward told reporters in a media roundtable June 3. “I think a significant part of this is the education from the senior leaders how you employ and work in that realm, how do you understand the flexibility down to your NCOs.”

JFCOM also is proposing the creation of a Small Unit Center of Excellence.

For the May 28 Tactical Field Test Alpha, the Honeywell [HON] Class 1 unmanned aerial vehicle, iRobot‘s [IRBT] small unmanned ground vehicle and Textron‘s [TXT] Urban Unattended Ground Sensors were testing the FCS software and interfaces.

The NIK was integrated on both AM General‘s 1151 up armored hard shell Humvee variant and on the 1097 variant.

A suite of communications packages was emplaced on the vehicles.

AM General Field Service Representative Carl Giefing showed Defense Daily an integration work in progress on a Humvee.

“We integrate the platform with A and B kits,” Giefing said. “A powers the NIK, while B [consists of] the components.

The entire NIK package adds about 500 pounds to the vehicle, but that also includes equipment needed for the tests.

The NIK consists of a multiband antenna, which can receive two channels of the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System, Matthews said. This is the normal voice communications piece. This is the ground mobile radio suite, of the Joint Tactical Radio family. There also is the ground mobile radio suite, part of the Joint Tactical Radio family.

Additionally, the kit includes the Wideband Networking Waveform and Soldier Radio Waveform, which is the gateway connectivity to the SUGV, U-UGS and UAS. The wideband network is where images are passed from one vehicle to another, then to the Integrated Computer System (ICS), which “puts images for the first time in a combat vehicle,” Matthews said.

ICS functions with the current Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2). Images from the SUGV, U-UGS and UAS for the first time pop up on FBCB2 and can be sent to higher command, a critical piece of situational awareness.

“Where soldiers have the sensors out there, for say, a tactical perimeter for a defensive position, or for an offensive movement that the unit may be going through…for the first time we’re able to take those images, show them on the screen on FBCB2 and pass that information back, which allows us to utilize the concept of see first, know first, understand first, be able to react first, when engaging the enemy, Matthews said.”