Army Tests the "Network Place"
Written by Scott Gourley
MIT 2009 Volume: 13 Issue: 9 (October)
The LUT, held at White Sands, N.M., represented a critical followon to the June acquisition decision memorandum that canceled the manned ground vehicle elements of the Army’s Future Combat System (FCS), while simultaneously directing the Army to transition to a modernization plan consisting of a number of separate but integrated acquisition programs. Those integrated programs include one to spin out the initial increment of the FCS program to seven infantry brigades in the near term, as well as additional programs for information and communications networks, unmanned ground and air vehicles and sensors, and an integration effort aimed at follow-on spinouts to all Army brigades.
The network testing encompassed by the monthlong LUT comes on the heels of earlier tests conducted with that developing system. (See “Future Network Testing,” MIT 2009 Volume 13, Issue 4.)
The initial capabilities package tested in the LUT included tactical unattended ground sensors (T-UGS), urban unattended ground sensors (U-UGS), the nonline- of-sight launch system (NLOS-LS), class 1 UAV Block 0, small unmanned ground vehicle block 1, and a network integration kit (NIK).
The AETF, designated 5th Brigade, 1st Armored Division, provided both blue force and red force participants for the LUT, with blue force elements coming from the brigade’s 2nd Combined Arms Battalion (CAB) while red force participants were drawn from the 1 CAB.
Blue Force structure for LUT was centered on 2 CAB’s “Charlie Company,” supported by a reconnaissance platoon from 2 CAB battalion headquarters as well as the NLOS-LS fire unit that would normally be located within the fires battalion assigned to the AETF/ brigade headquarters.
“It’s not the soldiers that are being tested out here, it’s the equipment,” explained Captain Marc Cervantes, assistant product manager for capabilities integration. “The soldiers are helping us test this equipment: to see if it’s reliable and to see if it will do all of the things it needs to do.
“Just about everyone here has a cell phone and understands that it is operating on a network,” he said. “And what we’re trying to do out here is to test the network. That ‘network piece’ is the hardest part to show someone who is coming out here, but that is what’s really being tested. We have [unmanned aerial systems] variants in theater right now. We also have robot variants that are in theater. But they are not all tied to a network.”
MULTIPLE WAVEFORMS
A key to tying all of the equipment together is the NIK, which provides the introduction of the FCS network and fusion of current force capability with the future force. The NIK integrates a Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) software programmable Ground Mobile Radio (GMR) running multiple waveforms with an FCS Integrated Computer System and FBCB2 computer to provide greatly enhanced situational awareness.
Along with that hardware, which is integrated into the rear of a combat vehicle equipped with multiband antennas (HMMWVs were used for the LUT), additional elements include a range extension relay, to extend the range of the JTRS handheld, manpack, small form fit (HMS)—running the Soldier Radio Waveform—that transmits data from the T-UGS to the NIK.
“That NIK vehicle basically operates like a laptop with an ‘air card,’” Cervantes observed. “The air cards essentially tie the laptop into a network, where I can send a picture from a cell phone to a laptop, so that that individual can see the picture and make decisions from that picture in real-time.”
Lieutenant Colonel Luke Peterson, product manager for network systems, provided an overview of the specific network architecture employed at LUT.
“It comprises two different kinds of network integration kits: seven pre-engineering development model [EDM] GMRs as well as three engineering development models of GMRs,” he said. “And everything is working with the satellite layer called blue force tracker, which is the current force system deployed today. And what that tells you is that FCS technologies are operating with current force systems to give us both terrestrial network capabilities and satellite network capabilities.”
The pre-EDM GMRs were running four waveforms for the LUT: Wideband Networking Waveform (WNW) 3.1, Soldier Radio Waveform 0.5, and two channels of SINCGARS. The EDM radios ran three waveforms: WNW 3.6 and two channels of SINCGARS (Network planners noted that the EDM, pre-EDM and SINCGARS are interoperable in the SC/PT mode).
Under the LUT network umbrella, soldiers from the AETF tested early models of both T-UGS and U-UGS unattended sensors as well as unmanned ground and air systems.
“Those are intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance nodes on the network that provide situational awareness to the soldiers through the network integration kits and disseminate that awareness out to the rest of the formation,” Peterson said. “What happens is that they collect data and imagery on enemy movements and enemy formations that is then passed into the network. And, once it goes through a gateway into a network integration kit, it is disseminated throughout the rest of the force, all the way from the lowest echelon up to the battalion and brigade tactical operations centers.”
Peterson noted the location of the pre-EDM GMR and associated power amplifiers in the rear of one of seven participating pre-EDM NIKs. “There are four channels,” he said. “They are using SINCGARS for voice, with two channels using SINCGARS. They also use the Soldier Radio Waveform, which is the key for bringing all of the imagery and data into the NIK. The systems send their data into the NIK through the Soldier Radio Waveform. That information is then processed through the Integrated Computer System, which is integrated and then sent forward for the soldier to manipulate on a screen in the front of the cab.”
In the front of the vehicle, that manipulation of data is conducted with the assistance of the FCS battle command software running on the Integrated Computer System.
“The soldier then takes that imagery and that data and does what we call a spot report, and then is ready to send that out, throughout the rest of the formation, over the Wideband Networking Waveform. And ‘wideband’ means exactly that. It’s got a wide band with a big enough pipe to handle passing those images throughout the rest of the formation out of the battlefield. Those are the four channels that the [pre-EDMs] have today for the LUT.”
The remaining three NIKs, which featured early introduction of the EDM GMRs, were used in a network environment linking the weapons company commander, battalion commander, and battalion S-3 via WNW 3.6, and linking that node to the rest of the LUT network architecture via SINCGARS.
FUTURE ARCHITECTURE
Moreover, the entire “future force” architecture is covered by Blue Force Tracker, which enables interoperability with current force architectures.
“We currently populate screens with icons marking friendly locations, enemy locations and so on,” Peterson said. “Blue Force Tracker helps disseminate that information or battle space object—think of an icon—to both the NIK vehicles as well as the non-NIK vehicles that are within a unit formation.”
The Army’s product manager emphasized that the NIK is not HMMWV platform-specific, adding that the capability “can be integrated onto other platforms as we continue to mature the design.”
Any future maturation of that design will certainly reflect the findings and observations derived through the LUT, which was scheduled to run through late September.
In addition to the participating AETF members, more than 250 Army personnel, Department of the Army civilians, and contractors from the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) are independently monitoring every aspect of LUT operations, preparing an abbreviated test report, and collecting and processing mountains of data to help feed a subsequent assessment report. As the independent evaluators, ATEC will lead the post-LUT assessment process, supported by Army TRADOC and program management representatives.
The net result should be a report recommending a path to take concerning the elements within the initial capabilities package.
Current plans call for a Milestone C decision on the package in December, to be followed by additional test and evaluation milestones.
Longer-range brigade combat team modernization plans call for the initial capabilities package to be fielded to the first seven teams by 2014. ♦
