NATO, NORFOLK, VA: Allied Command Transformation will team up with U.S. Joint Forces Command and other nations next month to assess technologies in an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration designed to reduce friendly fire incidents and enhance combat effectiveness.
Multinational military forces will test coalition combat identification technologies during an operational demonstration known as Bold Quest to assess their overall effectiveness and ability to support the warfighter in combat identification, with emphasis on the air-to-ground mission. The prior Urgent Quest ACTD conducted in the UK in 2005 focused on ground-to-ground combat identification.
During the upcoming demonstration, ACT will assess the military utility of ground friendly force tracking, which is a command and control device that provides near-time location of friendly ground forces, in air command and control from the air operations centre to the forward air controllers on the ground, and to the cockpits of aircraft.
According to U.S. Army Lt. Col. Joseph Chacon, a staff officer in ACT's Operational Experimentation division, and team leader for the command's participation in the demonstration, the Friendly Force Tracking System significantly contributes to the operational commander's overall situational awareness, enhances combat effectiveness and can contribute to reducing the risk of friendly fire.
“NATO forces in Afghanistan are already benefiting from the ACT-developed interoperability standard for tracking friendly forces,” said Chacon. “Bold Quest is an ideal forum to demonstrate the interoperability between NATO's FFT System and those of other nations, specifically with the U.S. Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below and the Dutch OSIRIS systems.”
The Combined Air Operations Center at Nellis Air Force Base, will serve as the hub for passing multinational FFT system data to a common operational picture. The International Security Assistance Force, Force Tracking System will be installed in vehicles from France, Germany and Sweden during the ground manoeuvre phase of the demonstration. Other NATO and multinational partners providing troops, vehicles and aircraft are Canada, Australia, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States.
At the Riga Summit in Nov 2006, NATO nations agreed to improve their ability to conduct and support multinational joint expeditionary operations. This commitment requires military forces that are fully deployable, sustainable and interoperable and the means to deploy them.
“Each nation will bring something unique to Bold Quest,” said Chacon. “By integrating their efforts and technologies, nations will have an opportunity to see if they can achieve interoperability, which has become a necessity.”
Participating with the OE division members will be ACT's Future, Capabilities, Research and Technology Operational Analyses Support branch and the Fratricide Prevention Integrated Project Team.
Bold Quest will be held at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. and Ft. Irwin National Training Center, Calif. from Sept. 7-19.
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