The Army Network Readies for the Battlefield

By Scott R. Gourley - December 27, 2013

Soldiers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 10th Mountain Division, train using Capability Set 13 at Fort Polk, La., March 2, 2013. CS 13 allows the 10th Mountain units to utilize advanced satellite-based systems – augmented by data radios, handheld devices, and the latest mission command software – to transmit voice/chat communications and situational awareness date throughout the BCT. That capability will be critical as U.S. troops work closely with Afghan forces, take down fixed infrastructure, and become increasingly mobile and dispersed in their operations. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Kulani Lakanaria

“That’s part of the beauty of this system,” he continued. “Once the soldiers have figured out the architecture and what makes it go, they realize that they can take this capability, move it somewhere else, and be responsive to what the mission commander wants for mission command on the battlefield.”

Translating CS 13 benefits to the individual soldier, Singerhouse explained, “In all the times I have been deployed, I realize that just the ability to know where everybody is will be a lifesaving factor, especially in some of the scenarios we may encounter on the battlefield. Our situational awareness will be increased. Our understanding of the battlefield will increase. Will the system go down? It hasn’t so far. It’s pretty reliable. We still have to practice and validate fighting without the system. But fighting with the system has the capability to save lives.”

“I’ll take that a step further,” Boyer echoed. “No piece of technology will ever replace a U.S. soldier engaging the enemy with his weapon system in contact. But out of contact, this system is a lifesaver.”

“No piece of technology will ever replace a U.S. soldier engaging the enemy with his weapon system in contact. But out of contact, this system is a lifesaver.”

Describing the CS 13 design initially fielded to his unit as a “90 percent plus solution,” Boyer said that the JRTC training rotation included implementation of minor changes designed to “operationalize” CS 13 for the unique mandates of the SFAAT mission.

“This system already meets more than 90 percent of my operational needs,” he said. “The small things we are still talking about with the architecture are a couple of things here and there. For example, we might like this mission planner to be able to do this, because it would make it more efficient. There are workarounds and we have passed those up.”

“When you think about the NIE and what we are attempting to do there, they validate everything we have been doing,” added Col. Mark Elliott, director of the Army G-3/5/7 LandWarNet/Mission Command Directorate. “I think the sergeant major really hit it – it’s about soldiers getting a chance to look at this equipment and telling you what’s wrong with it and what’s right with it and what they would change, using the idea that this generation understands what this equipment ought to be doing for them. So one of the many things we’re getting right is putting this into the hands of the soldiers long before we take it out and field it; giving them a chance to use it, break it, or tell us that a particular button is in the wrong spot. So we get [at NIE] the 90 percent solution. But we can only replicate just so much out at Bliss [and White Sands]. We can get close, but we’re not completely there. But we put it in the hands of the actual units and look for that additional 10 percent.”

He added, “As Lt. Col. Boyer said, you don’t know what mission you will actually get. But the fact that this equipment can be tailored to your mission is leaps and bounds ahead of what ‘our generation’ grew up with. So that’s part of the goodness in it.”

“The system came to us here as a ground-based system that is tied to the POP and the SNE and the company CP sets and my TOC,” Boyer echoed. “As we look at our mission here [as simulated at JRTC] through the lens of a potential deployment to OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom], and we understand the rugged mountainous terrain that you could operate in there, we said, ‘This system is great. But it’s tied to heavy vehicles. What if I need a light or medium system?’”

He continued, “How many of these capabilities in CS 13 can I replicate [in light or medium configurations] with all the stuff that I have? Because I need to be able to put something on the back of a CH-47 that can be run by a generator in an austere environment and provide me with the same primary, alternate, contingency, and emergency communications lines that I have in my TOC.”

“And Col. Elliott is exactly right, he added. “Because of the design of these systems along the echelons and the different radios associated we were able to create a system that basically gave us a medium capability. I do not know if that was the intent or design of the system but I told my guys to break it and find out how we can operationalize it. And I have a young private first class who did it.”