FROM DATA TO DECISIONS
the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology (ASAALT), in support of the Army’s network modernization strategy. The event also informs and reduces risk for the Network Integration Evaluations, a series of semiannual field exercises at White Sands Missile Range, NM, and Fort Bliss, TX, where a similar network architecture is being tested on a much larger scale.
FOLLOWING FRIENDLY FORCES
CPT Joseph Mucci, Company Commander for the D2D capabilities demonstration at Fort Dix, NJ, uses the Joint Capabilities Release of Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below/Blue Force Tracking to track the locations of friendly forces and to send and receive text messages.
We recently helped lead the Army’s first capability demonstration in support of D2D during the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelli- gence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) and Network Modernization Event 2011 (E11) at Fort Dix, NJ.
MISSION-TESTED The July-August event, conducted by the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command’s Communications- Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center (RDECOM CERDEC), involved many current and emerging tactical communications tech- nologies, incorporated into mission scenarios run by members of the New Jer- sey National Guard. While the Fort Dix exercise has taken place annually since 2003, this was the first time that several of the technologies involved were evaluated through the lens of D2D.
Aimed at the brigade level and below, those technologies included a combi- nation of sensors, mission command decision aid systems, and artificial intel- ligence applications from across the CERDEC portfolio. We want to assess
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how well these technologies can reduce manpower and time, increase accuracy, and lead to more effective information products as decision aids.
The missions focused primarily on reconnaissance, such as tracking the movements of enemy forces or discov- ering a weapons cache, that required individuals and systems to collect and process massive amounts of information, said Dr. Randy Zimmerman (LTC, USA Ret.), a consultant for the event. Knit- ting together satellite, radio, and cellular communications, the network connected ground troops patrolling through the woods, commanders in vehicles, higher headquarters leadership back at the tacti- cal operations center (TOC) tent, and an unmanned aerial system flying 7,000 feet overhead collecting video footage.
“The end state we’re trying to achieve is sharing information from the leading edge and the Soldiers all the way back into the TOC, and then back down again,” Zimmerman said.
Results and lessons learned from E11 are reported to the Assistant Secretary of
Since the D2D capability demonstration, CERDEC has examined the effectiveness of various technologies through inter- views with Soldiers and system-generated data. Researchers are attempting to gauge how each technology affected the speed, accuracy, and completeness of actions taken by decision makers at various ech- elons of the brigade.
LESS CLUTTER
Another D2D vignette focused on defend- ing a company-size outpost against rocket and mortar attacks. This event involved patrols by dismounted troops using hand- held mission command systems, including Command and Control Mobile Intelli- gent Net-Centric Software, to send and receive information about friendly and enemy force locations. Combining that information with feeds from sensor and radar systems such as Tactical Unattended Ground Sensors and Cerberus towers, the Soldiers were able to monitor the enemy’s progress in real time and block opponents from certain areas of vulnerability.
“If a commander is a couple of miles away in the vehicle, he can see exactly where we’re at, and we can send up enemy spot reports and let him know exactly what’s going on if we need to call for fire,” said SSG Robert Waterman, who led a squad of dismounted Soldiers during the exer- cise. He said the digital graphics- and text-based communications were a vast improvement from what he experienced while deployed to Iraq.
Army AL&T Magazine
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