Photo By Kris Osborn
Tactical operations centers like this one at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., are where much of the Network Integration Evaluation activity is monitored.
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Realistic virtual combat-like scenarios put gear to test
Standing attentively inside a tactical operations center, Sgt. David Johnson was able to pinpoint the location of an enemy sniper team and share real-time, combat-relevant intelligence across the force using networking gear now being evaluated.
The gear is being field tested during the Army's ongoing
Network Integration Evaluation, or NIE, and the TOC is located in a “mountain village” strategically nested between hills on White Sands Missile Range, N.M., designed to replicate Afghan desert terrain.
“The platoon leader was able to send information up to us and give our commanders the intel that we've got guys with machine guns and RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) in a building. He was able to prep the fire mission for artillery and go ahead and hit the building without having to endanger Soldiers on the ground,” Johnson explained.
The information in this mock-combat scenario, appearing as an icon on a laptop display screen inside the TOC, was sent using Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radio, or GMR — a four-channel, multi-waveform software programmable radio able to transmit voice, data images and video across the force in real time.
Using a high-bandwidth waveform called Wideband Networking Waveform — which draws from a larger part of the available spectrum than legacy waveforms to move information, farther, faster and more efficiently — the GMR transmitted and received the data using a mobile command post set up inside a Caiman mine-resistant, ambush-protected, or MRAP, vehicle. In the case of GMR and some of the other systems under test and evaluation, the Army is assessing the technology in its current configuration and also exploring additional hardware and software solutions which might perform the same or similar functions in a more efficient or effective manner.
The display screen in the TOC used Force Battle Command Brigade and Below, or FBCB2 force tracking technology, augmented by new software also under evaluation called Joint Capabilities Release, or JCR.
This scenario - wherein battle-relevant information is instantly transmitted across the force in real time, from dismounted units on the ground conducting counterinsurgency reconnaissance missions, to vehicles on-the-move and static command posts - represents the very heart of what the Army's ongoing NIE is aiming to accomplish, officials said.
The massive, 3,800-Soldier strong NIE is putting developmental “networking” technologies such as the GMR, JCR and scores of other technologies in the hands of Soldiers on the ground with a mind to establishing what works best and performing needed integration of emerging technologies before items are sent downrange to deployed units in theater.
Overall, the NIE integrates five limited user tests and 29 technologies termed Systems Under Evaluation into a single exercise, said Paul Mehney, communications director for Program Executive Office - Integration.
“By doing the integration down here at the NIE with an evaluation brigade, we are not sending equipment to deployed Soldiers that is not integrated,” Mehney said.
The exercise, involving the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, includes the full range of potential combat scenarios to include wide-area security, counterinsurgency and combined arms maneuvers, said Col. Dave Wellons, a director with Operational Test Command.
Operational Test Command and the Army Test and Evaluation Command will both complete reports following the NIE, detailing the major data and findings of the exercise, Wellons explained.
More than 700 Army Test and Evaluation Command personnel are participating in the NIE in order to collect data on the systems under test and those under evaluation. Instrumentation in the form of micro-computers has been placed on vehicles and even with Soldiers in some instances as a way to gather data on the technologies under review, said Barry Laumond, Operational Test Command, Mounted Division chief.