FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. - As the U.S. Army reinvents its network strategy, it is planning a busy year of tests and evaluations that will compare program-of-record technologies to other available equipment developed by industry.
The first event is scheduled for June and July at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and the Army is calling it the Integrated Network Baseline Test. The six-week exercise includes a series of limited user tests for important Army network programs.
Limited user tests are designed to grade a system's performance and collect data that can be used when the Army or the Pentagon make a production decision.
The Integrated Network Baseline Test will include limited user tests for two Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) programs: the Ground Mobile Radio and the Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Fit radios. It also will include limited user tests for the Modern Soldier System and the Joint Capability Release, which is the next generation of Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below battle command capabilities.
The first four weeks will comprise the limited user tests, and during weeks five and six, the Army will conduct brigade-level exercises with non-program-of-record network technologies.
Each battalion in the brigade will have different sets of equipment so the Army can judge interoperability but also compare the capabilities to each other, said Paul Mehney, spokesman for Program Executive Office (PEO)-Integration.
In October, the Army will conduct what it's calling a Brigade Combat Team Integrated Exercise (BCT-IE). This event is designed to bring in emerging capabilities and non-program-of-record technologies and get them into the hands of soldiers, Mehney said.
It is the Army's chance to evaluate what is available and see what could be added to capability sets in the future.
For a company like Harris, which has a radio with capabilities similar to those developed under the JTRS program, the opportunity is exciting. The Army has indicated it wants to evaluate the company's AN/PRC-117G radio, which is a huge change from a year ago, said Dennis Moran, vice president of government business development at Harris.
This year's focus is the company command post and the aerial tier of the network infrastructure. The Army will be looking at the maturity of the technology and its ability to be integrated into the overall network.
A culminating event, called the Integrated Network Test, will take place late in 2012. It will determine what goes into the Army's capability set for 2013 and 2014, Mehney said.
Bringing all of these disparate systems together is a new approach for the Army, said Col. Michael Williamson, deputy PEO Integration.
It is being spearheaded by Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the vice chief of the Army, who directed the service to start testing the separate network pieces together despite their different levels of technological maturity, Williamson said.
The Army tried it out for the first time during a giant network demonstration in July. To pull that off, the program managers and PEOs involved performed integration work that normally would have been done two years from now, Williamson said.
Tests on this scale require a lot of resources in manpower and dollars, but by combining programs' test events, the Army hopes to offset the costs, Williamson said.
The first event is scheduled for June and July at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and the Army is calling it the Integrated Network Baseline Test. The six-week exercise includes a series of limited user tests for important Army network programs.
Limited user tests are designed to grade a system's performance and collect data that can be used when the Army or the Pentagon make a production decision.
The Integrated Network Baseline Test will include limited user tests for two Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) programs: the Ground Mobile Radio and the Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Fit radios. It also will include limited user tests for the Modern Soldier System and the Joint Capability Release, which is the next generation of Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below battle command capabilities.
The first four weeks will comprise the limited user tests, and during weeks five and six, the Army will conduct brigade-level exercises with non-program-of-record network technologies.
Each battalion in the brigade will have different sets of equipment so the Army can judge interoperability but also compare the capabilities to each other, said Paul Mehney, spokesman for Program Executive Office (PEO)-Integration.
In October, the Army will conduct what it's calling a Brigade Combat Team Integrated Exercise (BCT-IE). This event is designed to bring in emerging capabilities and non-program-of-record technologies and get them into the hands of soldiers, Mehney said.
It is the Army's chance to evaluate what is available and see what could be added to capability sets in the future.
For a company like Harris, which has a radio with capabilities similar to those developed under the JTRS program, the opportunity is exciting. The Army has indicated it wants to evaluate the company's AN/PRC-117G radio, which is a huge change from a year ago, said Dennis Moran, vice president of government business development at Harris.
This year's focus is the company command post and the aerial tier of the network infrastructure. The Army will be looking at the maturity of the technology and its ability to be integrated into the overall network.
A culminating event, called the Integrated Network Test, will take place late in 2012. It will determine what goes into the Army's capability set for 2013 and 2014, Mehney said.
Bringing all of these disparate systems together is a new approach for the Army, said Col. Michael Williamson, deputy PEO Integration.
It is being spearheaded by Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the vice chief of the Army, who directed the service to start testing the separate network pieces together despite their different levels of technological maturity, Williamson said.
The Army tried it out for the first time during a giant network demonstration in July. To pull that off, the program managers and PEOs involved performed integration work that normally would have been done two years from now, Williamson said.
Tests on this scale require a lot of resources in manpower and dollars, but by combining programs' test events, the Army hopes to offset the costs, Williamson said.