a user-friendly interface, and Tactical Ground Reporting, which gave troops on patrol the basic digital intelligence- gathering and sharing capabilities that lower echelons had lacked previously. And both operations cemented the role of Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below/Blue Force Tracking (BFT), the foundational system of Army digitiza- tion, as something no commander would go to battle without.
BACK TO A BASELINE As the pace of the wars slowed in 2010- 2011, the Army paused to survey the digital landscape. Leaders concluded that the quick-reaction capabilities that could serve a lasting purpose needed to be integrated into a new, common base- line with programs of record that were
reaching maturity, such as WIN-T Incre- ment 2 and the Rifleman Radio, which would multiply the network’s mobility and reach. But while the Army had been devoted to speeding gear to combat, the industry trends of simplification and miniaturization—iPhone, Android, com- modity laptops—had largely passed it by.
“While we were working to deliver capability to the warfighter to meet his immediate needs, commercial industry was focusing on delivering a new user experience,” said Terry Edwards, chief science and technology advisor for PEO C3T. “While OIF and OEF created a demand for digitization and explored a number of solutions to meet specific needs, on the downside it was a chaotic process, and a lot of things didn’t feed
back into the programs of record. So we had to get back to the baseline in order to build on it and simplify it.”
Tat realization across the Army acqui- sition, requirements, test and signal communities gave rise to the Network Integration Evaluation (NIE), a series of field exercises launched in 2011 and intended to establish and validate a new, integrated network baseline for fielding across the force. Te NIE also offered a structured process for industry partners to demonstrate
technologies targeting specific capability gaps.
Te capability sets that emerged from the NIE introduced groundbreaking new capabilities such as mission com- mand on-the-move and smartphone-like devices for dismounted Soldiers, all inte- grated up front and delivered to priority units through a consolidated fielding process. Te first capability set deployed to Afghanistan in 2013 with Soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division who described it as their “digital guardian angel.” Tat became a new baseline on which the Army today is delivering sub- sequent capability sets.
But the dream of rapidly purchasing and fielding the latest commercial innova- tions through NIE has not been fully realized. Te Army has procured non- program of record capability solutions as a result of NIE, but gaps remain and the process continues to evolve. Beginning in FY16, NIE will incorporate the new Army Warfighter Assessment, which will offer a more experimental environment for industry technologies.
POWER OF COMPETITION
A Soldier operates a Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio (MNVR) during the government integration test over-the-air event at the Army’s Electronic Proving Ground at Fort Huachuca, AZ, in fall 2014. MNVR is one of several competitively procured networking radios that provide on-the- move voice and data communications to Soldiers spread out over complex terrain, linking lower- echelon digital radios like the Rifleman and Manpack to the WIN-T. (U.S. Army photo)
ENCOURAGING INNOVATION Taking the lessons learned from Force XXI, OEF, OIF and NIE, the Army is now working to provide a fast yet disciplined pathway to get emerging
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