{"id":931,"date":"2023-12-26T02:41:50","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T02:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/?p=931"},"modified":"2023-12-26T02:41:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T02:41:51","slug":"army-enables-flexible-communications-across-a-strategic-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/?p=931","title":{"rendered":"Army Enables Flexible Communications Across a Strategic Paradise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii \u2014\u00a0The blue Pacific is now\u00a0saturated\u00a0with Army green\u00a0as allies and partners join forces to\u00a0prepare\u00a0for\u00a0large-scale combat operations.<\/p>\n

As the Army adapts and evolves its network to reduce complexity and tailor capabilities at echelon,\u00a0it relies on persistent experimentation, fielding and Soldier feedback to refine network operational concepts.<\/p>\n

The 25th\u00a0Infantry Division\u00a0has\u00a0been\u00a0a critical\u00a0experimentation\u00a0partner\u00a0in this effort,\u00a0most recently during the\u00a0Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center 24-01 exercise\u00a0at Schofield Barracks employing\u00a0the\u00a0Integrated Tactical Network, or ITN, for its networked communications.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cHere in the Pacific, we\u2019re faced with unique environmental considerations,\u00a0from\u00a0triple canopy jungles to the mountains and volcanoes,\u201d\u00a0said Maj. Justin James, division deputy\u00a0communications officer (G6) for the\u00a025th\u00a0ID. \u201cThe ITN is going to help us communicate over terrain in which we couldn\u2019t before.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The ITN is comprised of a flexible network kit that incorporates\u00a0commercial capabilities such as tactical data radios, commercial cell technologies,\u00a0and\u00a0tactical cross domain solutions that integrate into the Army\u2019s network foundation.\u00a0The flexibility of the ITN\u00a0allows higher echelons to take on complex\u00a0network planning and management,\u00a0while retaining necessary\u00a0network\u00a0capabilities for commanders at lower echelons\u00a0who are focusing on the fight.<\/p>\n

One priority for the 25th ID during the execution of JPMRC 24-1 was to exercise and fight on the Sensitive but Unclassified \u2013 Encrypted, or SBU-E, network to the greatest extent possible.\u00a0The use of the SBU-E enclave supported communications across echelons and the joint and coalition communities.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a future fight, the U.S. will have to fight with its partners and allies and to make that interoperability real, our network has to be as\u00a0flat, fast and accurate\u00a0as\u00a0possible,\u201d said Col. Rob Shaw, 3rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division commander. \u201cBecause it\u2019s at an [acceptable]\u00a0level of encryption I can pull\u00a0in our partner nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past\u00a0six years, nine brigade combat teams and six security force assistance brigades have\u00a0successfully conducted operations using SBU-E at brigade and below to provide increased operational flexibility, interoperability, and security, while retaining secret voice and data\u00a0communications where\u00a0required.<\/p>\n

During the experimentations,\u00a0the 3-25 established communications up to division and down to the tactical command post using SBU-E to follow each tactical operations center movement. This provided Army network developers with data to inform network design.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Persistent Experimentation: Extending the Network<\/strong><\/p>\n

To complement the existing\u00a0ground-based\u00a0ITN capabilities,\u00a0the Army inserted new aerial tier experiments\u00a0by incorporating the ITN\u2019s tactical radios into\u00a0fixed wing drones, which\u00a0significantly extended\u00a0the network across\u00a0intra- and inter-island terrains\u00a0and\u00a0onto a\u00a0UH-60 Blackhawk\u00a0for air to ground communications.<\/p>\n

The Aerial Tier Network Extension featured a\u00a0K-1000 drone, which completed a 26-hour flight carrying full motion video with the radio creating a single mesh network to significantly extend the mesh network.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Aerial Integrated System, also known as ITN in the air, provided shared position location information between the pilot down to dismounted troops equipped with end user devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the helicopter comes into the line of sight, the system creates a communications bubble between the pilot, who is tracking the mission on a tablet, and the ground forces, who are communicating with the pilot and each other using their end user devices,\u201d said Maj. John Azbill, 3-25 S6. \u201cAir to ground communications are especially critical during our night time air assault operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unit also\u00a0successfully\u00a0experimented with\u00a0a joint-enabled radio for\u00a0shore-to-ship\u00a0joint call for fires, which\u00a0enabled\u00a0the forward observer to initiate the fires chain\u00a0up to\u00a0a\u00a0U.S. Navy destroyer offshore to launch a notional fires mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the Pacific,\u00a0so joint fires\u00a0missions are\u00a0probably what we\u2019re going to most rely upon to fight,\u201d Shaw\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

The 25th\u00a0ID will\u00a0continue to participate in\u00a0operational exercises in\u00a02024, where it will\u00a0refine\u00a0its ITN capabilities and provide the Army with additional feedback on how to implement a strategic communications link across the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

Story and photos Kathryn Bailey, U.S. Army Public Affairs<\/em><\/p>\n

Some photos by Sam Brooks<\/em><\/p>\n

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SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii \u2014\u00a0The blue Pacific is now\u00a0saturated\u00a0with Army green\u00a0as allies and partners join forces to\u00a0prepare\u00a0for\u00a0large-scale combat operations. As the Army adapts and evolves its network to reduce complexity and tailor capabilities at echelon,\u00a0it relies on persistent experimentation, fielding and Soldier feedback to refine network operational concepts. The 25th\u00a0Infantry Division\u00a0has\u00a0been\u00a0a critical\u00a0experimentation\u00a0partner\u00a0in this effort,\u00a0most recently during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-army"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":933,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions\/933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daily-bullet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}