By Ann Roosevelt
FT. BLISS, Texas–Lifting the fog of war at the sharp end of the spear to make the soldier more effective is the goal of accelerating Future Combat Systems (FCS) technologies for the current force.
The Army is pushing responsibility down as far down the ranks as possible, and the new FCS technologies are expected to help.
At an Army Evaluation Task Force (AETF) FCS Capabilities demonstration here last week, Brig. Gen. James Terry explained the Army set up new organizations to evaluate new technologies and develop the tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for them while at the same time coordinating and integrating the necessary doctrine, organization, training, leader development, material, personnel and facilities.
The 5th Brigade 1st Armor Division (AETF) evaluates the new technologies. AETF heads into a limited user test in the first half of June. It just completed Force Development Test and Evaluation work.
AETF is certified through individual and unit training as a heavy brigade combat team(BCT)–the same as all other such BCTs in the Army. The unit then trained on the FCS capabilities being evaluated for current force use.
Soldiers awaited a small group of reporters in temperatures rising toward 100 degrees with increasingly high winds with equipment under evaluation for the current force– Tactical- and Urban-Unattended Ground Sensors (T-UGS and U-UGS), under development by Textron [TXT], the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System, under development by Netfires LLC, a Lockheed Martin [LMT]-Raytheon [RTN] joint venture, Honeywell‘s [HON] micro air vehicle, andiRobot‘s [IRBT] Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV).
The goal is to make soldiers more effective by knowing more about their environment and thus able to make better decisions and take more precise action. While increasing their lethality and survivability these new capabilities could also mean there is less likelihood of friendly fire or mistaken civilian casualties.
Terry commands the Future Force Integration Directorate (FFID), part of the Army Training and Doctrine Command’s Capabilities Integration Center. FFID was set up last year as the Army moves from delivering single systems and associated packages to units in favor of considering the unit as a whole as it integrates new capabilities.
“The key task is to integrate capabilities in support of Army modernization,” Terry said. FFID must deliver an FCS-equipped brigade combat team which right now has an initial operational capability of 2015.
Boeing [BA] and SAIC [SAI] manage the program which will eventually consist of 14 systems and a network that connects them to soldiers.
Additionally, Terry commands the AETF. Here, FFID works with testers and “very closely with the acquisition community on which capabilities could provide what we see in the current fight as a critical need and try to accelerate them.”
It’s a new way of doing business, getting equipment to the soldiers quickly so they can provide direct feedback to industry to improve designs.
Soldier input is informed by real boots on the ground experience and judgment. Terry served in Afghanistan as deputy commanding general (Operations), 10th Mountain Div. (Light) and commanding general Combined Joint Task Force-76.
Col. Emmett Schaill commands the AETF. Schaill served in Iraq and earlier as battalion commander of 1-24 Infantry at Ft. Lewis, Wash., transformed it into a Stryker unit and conducted the Initial Operational Test & Evaluation (IOT&E).
As many as 65 percent to 70 percent of the 5/1 AETF soldiers are combat veterans. Some have deployed twice.
“I’m about training soldiers,” Schaill said. The unit takes spin out equipment, puts it on platforms and makes it work, then makes it work better. The unit develops TTPs and evaluates equipment in tactical situations.
2 Combined Arms Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Ed House said everyone “works with contractors to make [equipment] better than before.”
The new equipment does improve effectiveness, Lt. Andy Andersen said. He has been working with T-UGS, which provide him with “early and accurate intelligence.”
For example, in major combat operations, setting the networked sensors out to screen his troops on an enemy’s purported line of approach, or monitoring multiple avenues of approach, watching a pass or a dead space–areas where soldiers just can’t see.
In stability operations, such as those in Iraq or Afghanistan, the T-UGS sensor fields can be placed where the enemy has consistently been planting IEDs, or using indirect fire points to launch rockets or mortars.
The T-UGS system consists of a gateway–the primary node that takes all data from other nodes and sends it to a vehicle. There are other sensor nodes that can be assembled depending on the situation, such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes, and radiological and nuclear nodes. The system can cover about a kilometer block.
“At the end of every training event, we do an [after action review] AAR,” Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Hardy, Scout Platoon Sergeant, 2nd Combined Arms Battalion AETF told Defense Daily. “We take all the lessons learned and compile it all and distribute it out to the user.”
For Andersen, the sensor system allows him to “apply action and combat power exactly where and how we need.” It gives the unit early warning and allows him to figure out a better course of action more quickly than is possible today.
Additionally, Andersen doesn’t have to use soldiers to monitor approaches or dead spots. They can be used elsewhere, allowing the unit to be more flexible and agile.
Terry said, “It allows more precision. In the current fight, the more precise you are the less likely you are to upset the population.”
“We’re empowering junior leaders with capabilities that don’t exist,” House said.
Essentially, with the addition of T-UGS, Andersen and his unit show a substantial increase in the ability to cover different kinds of operations across the spectrum of conflict, something the Army describes in its new FM 3-0 Operations.
At the same time, higher echelons of command will know what Andersen knows from the T-UGS through the growing capability of a network that links sensors and soldiers. This also improves the understanding of a given situation at higher levels–such as battalion which resources the companies, and if required, can override a company commander’s decision.
Higher still, at brigade headquarters, command and staff keep an eye on the current fight but spend most of their time planning 48-72 hours or so ahead. Additionally, the improved situational awareness allows mission changes on the fly if necessary.
As effectiveness at the lowest levels of command is changing, it’s changing at the highest levels as well. The AETF staff has approached the new technologies and capabilities in a different way. Schaill ensured everyone learned together about the new equipment and what might be expected. Thus everyone started at the same place with the same understanding. Now as training events occur and the big picture changes because of events or actions at lower level command, overall planning can be revisited quickly.
This is a theory of operation the Army has been examining at leadership levels, most recently during its Title 10 annual wargame Unified Quest 2008 that took place earlier this month at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. It is still under examination.