`The Army said it recently completed networked operational tests of the first pairing of its developmental Common Controller with equipment soldiers currently use in theater from the Land Warrior effort.
The mobile capability of integrated and networked systems could offer an increased level of situational awareness in near real-time for soldiers.
This network capability will prove critical in rural areas where vehicles can’t go, and during the time period when the brigade network is being setup, the service said in a statement.
Called the Common Controller & Man packable Network Interoperability and Network Evaluation Experiment, the effort is the first connection of the Army’s Common Controller with equipment from the work on Land Warrior.
“With this experiment we were able to link the existing soldier network made possible through the Land Warrior effort to the future network being developed through the Program Executive Office-Integration,” said Lt. Col. James McNulty, product manager for the Common Controller team. “In doing so, we proved three very important things. First, we were able to push data and imagery collected by networked sensors down to small unit leaders at the company and below level. Second, we connected platoons and companies together and finally we were able to send data and real-time information up into the network.”
Individual soldier battlefield awareness was enhanced as sensor data was successfully passed from sensors such as the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV), produced by iRobot [IRBT], to small Land Warrior equipped units. From there, because of the Land Warrior gear, the information was able to pass from one small Land Warrior unit to another. Additionally, the critical information passed in real time from the small unit to the battalion and above level as well as the other way around.
“This network evaluation demonstrated both horizontal, or small unit sharing abilities as well as vertical or company and above sharing capabilities, McNulty said.
The Common Controller used in the experiment is under development to serve as a controller for many different brigade combat team (BCT) unmanned, networked systems. Today, the Army does not have a networked central control device for various unmanned platforms and sensors within the BCT so several different remote controls are necessary.
The Common Controller controls the Class 1 Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), produced by Honeywell [HON], the Multifunctional Utility /Logistics Equipment vehicle (MULE), under development by Lockheed Martin [LMT], the SUGV, and Textron‘s [TXT] Urban Unattended Ground Sensors.
The unmanned networked assets are designed to provide battlefield situational awareness at the company level to an unprecedented degree by sending imagery, video and data to a networked vehicle for analysis, the service said. From there, an operator can send the data and imagery to a remote tactical operations center where company commanders can analyze and act. Currently, this kind of networked communication for sensors only exists at the battalion and above levels.
“Here we went beyond passing information from networked vehicles to the tactical operations centers and we were able to significantly reduce the process of information transfer that typically takes place when you want to link an individual soldier into what’s happening on the ground,” McNulty said. “By linking the abilities of the Common Controller with a Land-Warrior-equipped platoon, you can really give soldiers a full sense of what’s happening on the battlefield.”
Land Warrior is a battle-proven, modular fighting system that currently provides soldiers of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in Afghanistan with essential battlefield network connectivity. Land Warrior is comprised of computer, communications and global positioning technologies that digitally link individual soldiers on the battlefield with each other. It is integrated with the soldier’s body armor and has a helmet-mounted display that shows where friendly and enemy forces are located. As a surrogate to the Ground Soldier System, Land Warrior will continue to provide individual soldiers in critical operational areas with battlefield network access until the highly capable Ground Soldier System is fielded.
In the experiment, a Common Controller operator deployed a robot to perform reconnaissance around a building. Through the small robot’s video camera, the operator saw a man get out of a vehicle that appeared to be loaded with explosives. The operator captured the suspects’s image and sent it with a text report to a Land Warrior-equipped platoon which, in turn, set up a road block and captured the suspects.
“This successful effort is illustrative of several program executive offices and TRADOC Capabilities Managers working together to build a single integrated high performing network for the Army,” Col. Ken Carrick, project manager-Network Systems Integration, said.