“The magnificence of the NIE is that we get the capability in the hands of the soldiers early and we are able to inform the requirements that we develop. Inasmuch as we have the capability out there, the soldier becomes the ultimate spokesman for the Army, because they provide candid feedback to material developers, to our testers and evaluators, to the Training and Doctrine Command [TRADOC], and to the program managers, so that we are able to see how well these systems perform while they are in an operational context,” he said.

Referencing the recently completed NIE 12.2, Dragon explained, “We had about 3,800 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division [2/1AD] out in the field, but linked to them and providing the command and control was the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) Division, out of Fort Campbell, Ky. And we also had a Sustainment Brigade participating from Fort Riley, Kan. So we had the ability to extend over great distances to command and control this effort that was going on at White Sands.

“The soldiers were out in the field for 43 days, and during that time period they were able to conduct communications exercises initially,” he added. “Then we put them into an operational context that allowed them to practice and rehearse these systems and to achieve some level of understanding about how well they performed in offensive, defensive, and stability operations. So the system that we set up had not only wide area security missions, where you would normally see stability ops as the predominant task, but also a combined arms maneuver perspective, which is really where you’re going to see your offensive and defensive tasks. So they got the wide range of potential military operations that soldiers are performing in Afghanistan now as well as those that we expect to have to perform as part of our mission in the future.”

Dragon emphasized the NIE 12.2 contributions of CS 13 systems like the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2, highlighting that system’s ability to extend the number of command nodes that 2/1 AD was able to operate from in the field.

“In the past, our communications systems where you had full situational awareness limited us to eight command posts at the Brigade Combat Team level,” he said. “With WIN-T Increment 2 we’re able to extend that out to 58 command posts/situational awareness facilities that you can not only operate from in a static mode, but you also can operate on the move.

“Commanders are able to see the same situational awareness in their vehicles that they could see in a command post,” he continued. “They can see information on where their troops are located; where the threat that we know about is located or templated; and how those two combine in the same operational picture. And that’s a big one.”

Noting that the brigade footprint had extended over distances as far as 170 kilometers during the NIE, Dragon added, “The brigade TOCs [tactical operations centers] and battalion TOCs all ‘jumped’ a minimum of three times [during NIE 12.2]. When they started their footprint was rather large for how they set up their tactical operations centers and it took the brigade 12 hours to establish their TOC. But by the time the exercise ended and they had jumped three times, our great noncommissioned officers had pared that down to where they were able to re-establish command and control in three hours. So they would pick up the fight and pass it between command nodes in a matter of three hours – which is a major increase in capability.”