Congress is proposing to withhold half the funding authorized for procurement and fielding of the Army’s battlefield communications network until delivery of a detailed report on the beleaguered multi-billion-dollar program.
The Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) has suffered hard knocks from congressional defense committees in recent hearings, most notably from Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chair John McCain (R-Ariz), who regularly trots it out as an example of Army waste.
Included in the version of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) agreed upon by the House and Senate armed services committees is a requirement that no more than half the requested $420 million be spent on WIN-T until the Army delivers a report on the program’s future. Congress wants the “report on the strategy of the Army for modernizing air-land ad-hoc, mobile tactical communications and data networks” before the end of January.
“Of the funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or otherwise made available for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2018 for Increment 2 of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical program of the Army (referred to in this section as ‘‘WIN-T Increment 2’’) not more than 50 percent may be used to enter into, or to prepare to enter into, a contract for the procurement of equipment under the program until the date on which the Secretary of the Army submits the report,” the bill states.
SASC proposed withholding all funding for WIN-T in its version of the bill, but the requested $420 million was reinstated in the conference report.
“The conferees are concerned about the continued suitability, effectiveness, security, and survivability of all aspects of the Army Air-Land Mobile Tactical Communications and Data Networks to include WIN–T given demonstrated threat capabilities of peer adversaries in electronic warfare attack, electronic reconnaissance, and massed fire strikes,” the bill states.
Lawmakers in both houses “encourage the Army to repair identified problems and to more carefully redefine its requirements for the tactical network” and to “leverage its new acquisition authorities to seek non-developmental technologies when practicable to repair and improve the legacy network. This effort is key given investments to date.”
McCain and other lawmakers are quick to point out the program has eaten up $6 billion, though not all of that is sunk cost. The entire Army has a baseline capability in WIN-T increment 1. Prime contractor General Dynamics [GD] since 2008 has been consistently refining and downsizing system components and is now fielding Increment 2 to the Army.
In the report, the Army must justify its network modernization strategy and the rationale behind its redefined requirements. Congress also wants an explanation for how the Army will implement program recommendations made by the Director of Cost Assessment (CAPE).
CAPE conducted a comprehensive assessment of WIN–T to determine the technological feasibility, achievability, suitability, and survivability of a tactical communications and data network and was directed to submit the report with the budget request for fiscal 2019.
CAPE found the current WIN-T system as fielded faces challenges with beyond line-of-sight communications and lacks sufficient security, both of which are vulnerabilities a peer nation like Russia or China could exploit in a war.
After requesting $420 million to continue fielding the second increment of WIN-T in fiscal 2018, Army officials returned to Capitol Hill in October to request stripping the program of funding to pay for other priorities.
Plans are to continue fielding the WIN-T equipment it already has bought and then rely on the Joint Battle Command Platform (JBCP) until fiscal 2022. The service has general plans to incorporate off-the-shelf commercial technology to upgrade the existing network and plug capability gaps, but other than that has no replacement in mind for WIN-T, the satellite-based backbone of the Army’s deployable communications network.
The Army has spent a total $5 billion on WIN-T and is expected to spend an additional $9 billion to complete development and fielding, according to the SASC bill report, also published July 11. Total “sunk and projected costs” for the system are as high as $66 billion.