ARMY AL&T
commercial networks to share data, imag- ery and messaging among team members.
Walker: Were there any benefits in field- ing a forward-deployed unit versus one at home station?
Nocchi: Te benefit lay in the ability to really focus on the new equipment train- ing. Te Soldiers were all in the same location and could dedicate additional time to hands-on training with the new equipment without some of the compet- ing requirements found at home station. While I’d prefer to field new equipment before deploying, the project managers were very supportive and we were gener- ally successful. Te 1st SFAB owes a lot of its success with the new systems to the acquisition community for fielding equip- ment as fast as they could, getting the manufacturer to provide the equipment and then following up with outstanding training and support.
Hittner: Timelines, the unit’s availabil- ity and equipment production will always play a factor in new equipment training and fielding. Any time you are fielding in the continental United States, the unit has a great deal of other mandatory training and preparatory efforts to focus on, espe- cially the SFABs. Tese new units are setting a new stage to fight on. So on top
“We are streamlining training to make it
shorter and more intuitive to match the needs of a new generation of Soldiers.
”
of preparing for their missions, they have to prepare to become a new formation, so there are a lot of tasks involved—live fires, additional training, monitoring, all the different tasks needed to get the unit prepared to serve in its new capacity.
Because we fielded the 1st SFAB while they were deployed, we received dedicated time to focus purely on training. Tey were able to pick it up faster, and it saved the unit a lot of time. We were also able to support the unit through all of its reception, stag- ing, onward movement and integration events and in-country tasks required to operate in that area of responsibility.
Dodge: Our embedded team provided mission essential training and support to the 1st SFAB’s lower tactical internet [radio] network. Because I was deployed with our team, I was able to travel to over a dozen locations in Afghanistan over a period of four months to assist with field- ing and training.
In total, we fielded over 500 radios and integrated systems into 66 vehicle plat- forms spread out over Afghanistan. I was able to assist SFAB advisory teams in setting up their radio networks and accompanied them on missions to iden- tify and troubleshoot any issues with new equipment. As part of the developmental operations construct, the Soldier feed- back we were able to gather on product performance allowed us to make positive changes to the unit’s communications architecture while they were still in theater.
Walker: Did you do anything different as far as the training itself was concerned?
Nocchi: Te SCOUT training went well but required some refinement, which was expected due to the circumstances and makeup of the class: Some Soldiers had extensive network experience and some
PATCHED IN
Security force assistance brigades provide advise-and-assist support to Afghan Security Forces. They require expeditionary-resilient network communications to support their missions. (U.S. Army photo)
had very little. We are recommending and attempting to schedule new equip- ment training for general purpose users and new equipment training for techni- cal users and Signal officers, which will teach the operators what they need to know based on what equipment they’ll be operating and at what level.
Hittner: The PM Tactical Network training team designed and developed a training set for the SCOUT system to support the unit’s specific mission require- ments, enabling them to successfully perform their mission training completion. We put the unit’s feedback to work and developed a condensed general user train- ing set to support new SFAB Soldiers. PM Tactical Network takes Soldier feedback from training events and shapes training packages to suit a unit’s needs, taking into account missions, Soldiers’ military occu- pational specialties, age groups, etc. With the numerous rapid acquisition efforts the Army is conducting, the PM is staying
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