Thursday, July 10, 2025
  • About us
    • Write for us
    • Disclaimer
    • Terms of use
    • Privacy Policy
  • RSS Feeds
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
DefenceTalk
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports
No Result
View All Result
DefenceTalk
No Result
View All Result
Home Defence & Military News Army News

Army gears up for large-scale network evaluations

by US Army
April 6, 2011
in Army News
4 min read
0
Army gears up for large-scale network evaluations
14
VIEWS

As preparations for the Army’s Network Integration Evaluation kick into high gear, Soldiers, engineers, combat developers and test officials are joining forces at Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

The NIE, scheduled to get underway in earnest by June at White Sands, will be the Army’s largest and most robust network test and evaluation effort to date, according to program officials.

“We have hundreds of subject-matter experts from the test, acquisition and requirements communities converging at Fort Bliss to begin integration work in support of the Army’s top modernization priority … delivering an integrated network that will be evaluated during the June through July Network Integration Evaluation,” said Col. John Wendel, deputy program executive officer for Networks, PEO Integration.

“This is a monumental effort and it requires a new level of integration, so we have assembled the right team to make sure we can synchronize the technologies into a composite brigade formation while working to ensure proper instrumentation from a data collection standpoint,” Wendel said.

Wendel and his team are in charge of the synchronization and integration of network capability to support the NIE. These personnel, plus numbers that continue to increase weekly, will maintain a permanent presence at Fort Bliss through the end of July to support ongoing NIE efforts.

The NIE has been termed “the largest operational test in the history of the U.S. Army Operational Test Command, in terms of number of systems being tested and number of personnel supporting.” This year’s NIE is actually the first of a series of four major test and evaluation events aimed at synchronizing multiple programs and evaluating technologies to determine how well they fit into a larger, integrated tactical network, according to the Army Test and Evaluation Command.

The culminating event in late 2012 will help slate the content for the first Capability Set to be fielded to deploying brigades in the 2013-2014 timeframe. A Capability Set is a total package of networked and non-networked hardware and software fielded to a particular unit.
“The June/July NIE is not a stand-alone ‘pass/fail’ event, but the first of four major stepping stones leading to executing a fully integrated Brigade Combat Team Network Evaluation at the end of 2012,” said Paul Mehney, spokesman for PEO Integration. “These events are not individual activities, but part of a culminating process that will allow the Army to build the network and then fill it with the best applications and systems that the network can handle.”

Additional preparations are being made at the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, which will be executing the six-week test and evaluation. The 4,000-plus Soldiers from this unit will make up the first full brigade the Army has used in its test/evaluation process. They have spent the past several months preparing for the NIE in both field training and classroom exercises.

Currently, 2/1 AD is participating in Battle Command System of Systems Integration training at Fort Bliss, designed to train the unit to use all current command post equipment in a battle command environment. During the 12-day training exercise that commenced March 14, Soldiers established both brigade- and battalion-level networked command posts and are participating in intensive integration training.

“The goal is to build the infrastructure and architecture of a fully operational tactical operations center – 14 large ‘tents’ filled with the unit’s own equipment,” said Maj. Rick Galeano of 2/1 AD. “This not only ensures the unit has the right level of connectivity to deliver mission command information to the Brigade prior to going out into the field, but also determines how emerging network capabilities at both lower and higher tactical levels will integrate into the command post and then communicate with each other.”

Establishing a baseline with current capabilities at the brigade and battalion-level will allow the unit to better assess how new capabilities at the platoon and company level will integrate with current and/or theater-provided systems during follow-on communications exercises scheduled in May. Additionally, the exercise provides an opportunity for the brigade to carry out various tasks including: validate command-post infrastructure and network; manage tactical information; learn how to restore capability in case of network malfunction; and create a common operational picture.

Many brigade Soldiers are also enrolled in daily classroom training to learn how to integrate and operate everything from the Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radio, known at JTRS GMR, to remote weapons delivery systems, to connecting Soldiers to digital applications, known as CSDA – an Army initiative aimed at developing and evaluating handheld applications and capabilities.

Soldiers attend the classes at brigade headquarters, where there are six large new classrooms that can accommodate up to 40 Soldiers in each. Others attend equipment training on acres of sprawling motor-pool lots, teaming with the latest Army combat and tactical vehicles including Strykers and fully-outfitted M-ATVs. As integration efforts progress, the brigade will begin “new equipment training, or NET, in April with the systems they will be testing and evaluating during NIE.

In June, the entire brigade with a cadre of test officials will occupy White Sands Missile Range for the start of the test and evaluations.

“By integrating systems across the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, we will ensure these capabilities get a thorough operational workout,” Wendel said. “When the Army fields network capabilities, not all Soldiers receive them at the same time. Part of our challenge during these upcoming rehearsal and evaluation events is to figure out how to make sure units who have the new capabilities can talk to units that don’t have all the new capabilities. It’s all about proper capability integration and real-world, Soldier-driven, operationally-relevant evaluations – that’s what this entire community is working to solve.”

(Katie Cain provides public affairs support to PEO Integration)

Tags: Army & Security Forces Newsevaluationintegrationnetwork
Previous Post

MC-130J rollout accelerates AFSOC recapitalization

Next Post

Flight of the Dudettes

Related Posts

Indonesia Orders Additional CAESAR Artillery Systems

France to send more mobile artillery to Ukraine

February 1, 2023

France will ship 12 more Caesar truck-mounted howitzers and fresh air defence equipment to Ukraine to bolster the fight against...

Leopard tanks to arrive in Ukraine around late March: Germany

Leopard tanks to arrive in Ukraine around late March: Germany

January 27, 2023

Leopard tanks pledged by Germany to help Ukraine repel Russia's invasion will arrive in "late March, early April", Defence Minister...

Next Post

Flight of the Dudettes

Latest Defense News

Britain, Germany jointly developing missiles: ministers

Britain, Germany jointly developing missiles: ministers

May 17, 2025
Trump announces ‘full and immediate’ India-Pakistan ceasefire

Trump announces ‘full and immediate’ India-Pakistan ceasefire

May 10, 2025
Pakistan says Indian missiles strike air bases as conflict spirals

Pakistan says Indian missiles strike air bases as conflict spirals

May 10, 2025
J-10C fighter jet

Pakistan says India has brought neighbours ‘closer to major conflict’

May 9, 2025
North Korea fires multiple suspected cruise missiles

North Korea fires flurry of short-range ballistic missiles

May 9, 2025
China says ‘closely watching’ Ukraine situation after Russian attack

China vows to stand with Russia in face of ‘hegemonic bullying’

May 9, 2025

Defense Forum Discussions

  • Germany
  • Royal Australian Navy Discussions and Updates 2.0
  • The Russian-Ukrainian War Thread
  • US Navy News and updates
  • Military Aviation News and Discussion
  • Russia - General Discussion.
  • Royal Australian Air Force [RAAF] News, Discussions and Updates
  • Indonesia: 'green water navy'
  • USAF News and Discussion
  • Japan Ground Self Defense Force
DefenceTalk

© 2003-2020 DefenceTalk.com

Navigate Site

  • Defence Forum
  • Military Photos
  • RSS Feeds
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Defense News
    • Defense & Geopolitics News
    • War Conflicts News
    • Army News
    • Air Force News
    • Navy News
    • Missiles Systems News
    • Nuclear Weapons
    • Defense Technology
    • Cybersecurity News
  • Military Photos
  • Defense Forum
  • Military Videos
  • Military Weapon Systems
    • Weapon Systems
    • Reports

© 2003-2020 DefenceTalk.com