By Ann Roosevelt
A recent radio field test is part of the Army’s larger effort to empower small units by bringing voice and data to soldiers at the company and squad level, reducing developmental risk and providing input for future testing, officials said.
A March 1-4 Handheld, Manpack and Small form fit (HMS) Network Excursion found the equipment effectively filled critical gaps, though more work needed to be done. The feedback comes from a memo from the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division to the military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology.
The field excursion was also part of the risk reduction on some of the equipment the Army will be evaluating later this year, said Paul Mehney, chief, public communications, Army Program Executive Office Integration. For example, the June Manpack Limited User Test (LUT).
“Now that we’ve done that and seen the value, a similar capability will be inserted as part of the Network Integration Evaluation later this year,” he said.
It’s also important from a brigade integration perspective, Mehney said. The excursion is part of the process of program alignment, and all the individual exercises and excursions relate to the holistic effort looking at capability sets.
The capability package process aims to field groups of key materiel and non-materiel solutions on a two-year basis to modernize and support brigade combat teams.
The Fort Bragg excursion was led by the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program office and the Army Program Executive Office Command, Control Communications Tactical (PEO C3T), using the JTRS HMS Rifleman and Manpack radios and equipped with handheld prototypes from PEO C3T.
The equipment was used to see if the systems “effectively met operational requirements,” the memo said.
James Mercer, director of strategic communications for JPEO JTRS, said the HMS original objectives for the excursion were: to demonstrate potential scenarios where “the improved situational awareness capability of the Army’s network would enhance small unit effectiveness and survivability;” assess the HMS radios and Soldier Radio Waveform’s ability to support near-term Army tactical data requirements for dismounted soldiers, demonstrate integration work done so far, and demonstrate that it’s possible to connect the dismounted force to the global information grid with today’s technology.
Two real-world applications were in use: Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below/Joint Battle Command-Platform (FBCB2/JBC-P), and Tactical Ground Reporting (TIGR).
The point of the excursion was to “further refine and define” the JTRS HMS “Net Ready Key performance parameters and reduce risk for coming exercises,” Mercer said.
HMS prime contractor General Dynamics [GD] C4 Systems supported the Army during the excursion but was not there in an official role.
Chris Brady, vice president of Assured Communication at GD C4 Systems, said the Rifleman radio has been through its tests: “We’re expecting a milestone decision no later than July that also would be the decision to go into Low-Rate Initial Production.”
The Manpack must still go through the June LUT and will be part of the of a larger Army effort. “That will also lead to a production decision that we hope to see before the end of the year,” Brady said.
The program is set up such that General Dynamics and Thales are the two sources for the radio. During LRIP, every order will be built 50-50 between the two companies. In full-rate production, the two companies will compete against each other for production quantities.
For Manpack radios, GD and Rockwell Collins [COL] are the two sources, working collaboratively early on but then will compete for full-rate production, he said.
This way, other companies are fully prepared as sources, and the government is not locked to a sole source supplier as has sometimes been the case in the past.
For the excursion, there were three days of squad level training exercises culminating with an air assault operation in an urban area to capture a high value target.
During 2010, four “critical communications gaps” were identified, the memo said: company and below required beyond-line-of-sight secure communications capabilities to higher headquarters and aviation; land mobile radios did not provide adequate command and control for the company and below; limited situational awareness based on vehicles, and no dismounted system for planning or developing overlays, and secure data didn’t go below battalion level to share graphics and imagery.
Feedback found the radio systems were effective in all four areas, but there were still areas that needed further work–such as the fact that gloves must be removed to input information.
Additionally, the excursion found system considerations. Developers could improve Manpack capability by simplifying menu options, reducing the time it takes for the radios to network, reboot and operate, the memo said.
Additionally, the memo said developers should continue testing, for example, testing with legacy systems before using the radio as a primary means of communications outside the unit.
For the JPEO JTRS office, the excursion showed “the successful integration of the Battle Command/Mission Command ‘application’ and ‘transport’ layer, Mercer told Defense Daily.
For the 3 Brigade Combat Team 82nd Airborne, the Rifleman radios performed in “remarkable fashion,” the memo said. “Providing both voice and data beyond line of sight communications to the fire team level, the HMS radio meets operational requirements and fills a gap where no capability currently exists. Reliability, while not perfect far exceeds operational requirements/expectations.”
The radio as tested “meets our requirements,” the commander wrote in the memo, saying he doesn’t want to see fielding delayed by a testing program looking for 100 percent reliability, because it would be “counterproductive.”