Q&A: SMART TEST PREP
ing the network over vast distances and difficult terrain. Te system completed its follow-on operational test and evaluation (FOT&E) 2 during the Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 15.1 in October-November 2014. Results will inform a full-rate production decision in spring 2015. COL Ed Swanson, project manager for WIN-T, and LTC LaMont Hall, product manager for WIN-T Increment 2, discuss how the program prepared for this major test.
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ARMY AL&T: Tell us about the role of the developmental test (DT) 1 and DT 2 held earlier in 2014 as building blocks to get ready for the FOT&E 2.
LTC HALL:Tese were really developmental tests in name only. We worked hard with our counterparts in the test community
arfighter Information Network – Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2 is the mobile backbone of the Army’s tactical network, providing mission command on-the-move and extend-
to replicate the rigor and methods typically found in an opera- tional test. Te first DT was completed at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD, in late February in snowy, cold, wet and windy conditions, and involved Soldier operators who used almost a brigade’s worth of equipment in a tactical environment. Te event featured eight days of record test, approximately 800 training hours and 21 network nodes, including 16 mobile nodes that drove 8,000 miles during the test.
Te second test was even more extensive, covering more than 1,250 miles a day in the scorching June heat of White Sands Mis- sile Range, NM. To help capture data during the DT2, the Army installed a complete suite of instrumentation on each WIN-T Increment 2 equipped-vehicle, which monitored the entire net- work and the performance of each system. Hundreds of gigabytes of data per day were collected and sent back to APG for analysis.
U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command personnel rode in each WIN-T Increment 2 vehicle and noted all operations dur- ing mission threads. For both DT events, the instrumentation and various data collection methods monitored the performance on the back end, while Soldiers provided continuous feedback through daily after-action reviews on the front end.
Our goal with the discipline, design and intensity of the DTs was to collect critical system performance data and valuable Soldier feedback on system usability improvements, and to avoid surprises once we began the FOT&E 2. You can never predict exactly what you’ll encounter in an operational test, but you can eliminate a lot of potential issues by doing the legwork upfront.
COMMANDING PRESENCE
A vehicle equipped with a WIN-T Increment 2 Point of Presence supports mission command on-the-move during the FOT&E 2 conducted at White Sands Missile Range in October 2014 during NIE 15.1. Results will inform a full-rate production decision in spring 2015. (U.S. Army photo by Amy Walker)
ARMY AL&T: Before the FOT&E 2, WIN-T Increment 2 par- ticipated in two other large-scale operational tests in the NIE environment. What lessons learned from those experiences did you apply to the latest test?
LTC HALL: From Soldier feedback at previous NIEs, we recog- nized that we needed to simplify the system in terms of startup, shutdown, operation and troubleshooting, so we redesigned
22 Army AL&T Magazine January–March 2015
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