JRTC Training With CS13
In the representative case of the 4th Brigade Combat Team (BCT) of the 10th Mountain Division, the unit explored network application to its mission at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) at Fort Polk, La., (the 4th is the only one of the 10th Mountain Division’s brigades that is also home stationed at Fort Polk).
Reflecting on his unit’s upcoming theater employment of CS 13, Lt. Col. Alan Boyer, commander of the 4th BCT’s 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment (“The Wild Boars”), offered that the SFAAT mission reflected the fact that the mission “has transitioned and continues to proceed along the advisory realm in Afghanistan.”
“That really comes into play as well with these smaller teams, when you’re on the ground in austere environments, of having a system provide you with that situational awareness for things such as clearance of fires, medical evacuation, and all the things that we need to protect ourselves and provide enablers for ourselves in the combat zone. This system enhances that capability.”
“Advisory missions are obviously at smaller echelons than we are used to, sometimes not in a formation that we have fought in,” he explained. “We task organize to support our SFAAT partners. The ‘uniqueness’ of the CS 13 system allows us to have that mission command and that flatness amongst those smaller organizations so we can see ourselves, first and foremost, and also be able to rapidly pass information back and forth, which enables us to better advise our partners.”
“That really comes into play as well with these smaller teams, when you’re on the ground in austere environments, of having a system provide you with that situational awareness for things such as clearance of fires, medical evacuation, and all the things that we need to protect ourselves and provide enablers for ourselves in the combat zone. This system enhances that capability,” he said.
The “Boar Battlewagon,” an Army Gator utility vehicle and a 1-kilowatt portable generator, provide power and motive force for CS 13 elements, providing the Wild Boars commander with a Chinook-transportable mobile command post. Photo by Scott R. Gourley
Proclaiming the company command posts as his “favorite piece of the CS 13 system,” Boyer noted, “The company CP [command post] sets essentially give the company commander – either via SNE for mounted capability or the company CP set in his company command post – the same capabilities that we have in the TOC [tactical operations center] at the battalion and brigade levels. In my opinion that is a ‘game changer.’ I have company commanders who now have a CPOF [Command Post of the Future system] for transfer of information. That gives us voice and data capabilities so we can pass CONOPS [concepts of operations] back and forth. We can conduct collaborative battle update briefs from company to battalion level. Typically, the way I grew up in the Army, that was always done over FM radio. … But now we can do that real time, virtual, data, and voice. And that is a significant change in the way we fight. What we have learned in 10 years of combat in the mission command realm is now at the company and below level. And I think that’s a true game changer.”
Emphasizing how the company-level SNE and battalion/brigade-level POP vehicles will work together to provide MCOTM capabilities in the SFAAT scenario, Boyer said, “The POP gives me all the same capabilities I have in my TOC, and my company commanders have a microcosm of those capabilities – almost equal – in [their] SNE. So what it allows for that company commander to do is be more expeditionary and operate in an austere environment; it allows him to move around on the battlefield and not have to transfer back to an analog common operating picture. With this system we are completely digital as a battalion.”
“When I sat down and looked at this problem set, I saw all this technology – an Android– type device [Nett Warrior] that the individual soldier has, satellite communications, and all this communications equipment,” Boyer added. “But just give it to my soldiers. They have grown up with technology. They have not known anything in their lives other than digital communications systems. So really, to solve the problems, I have turned to my younger soldiers. And they have amazed me with what they have been able to accomplish in terms of creatively understanding how all these systems interact. They may not understand the mission command level, given their task and purpose within the organization and how we are arrayed by echelon, but they sure understand how to make the digits work. They are very capable with the technology.”
Asked whether any aspects of CS 13 came as a surprise to his young warfighters, Sgt. Maj. Joe Singerhouse pointed to the digital architecture itself.
“The soldiers didn’t build the system,” he said. “And if younger soldiers can get their hands on something and build it, then they understand it. The only limitation I think we had [with CS 13] – I think because these systems came to us already built – was figuring out the architecture and where all the cables and widgets and gadgets go. But once they have figured that out, they can hop into any one of the vehicles, power it up, and make it run.”