Army's Future Tactical Net Apt for High-Speed Combat.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: U.S. Army

The Army will be spending at least $6 billion during the next 15 to 20 years to replace its outdated communications networks that link brigades to echelons above corps and national authorities.

The existing system--the mobile subscriber equipment tri-service tactical (MSE-Tritac)--is not adequate to meet the Army's future needs, said officials, because it's nor mobile enough and relies on antiquated information technology.

The system that will replace the 25-year-old MSE-Tritac, additionally, will reach farther down in the chain of command, to battalion level. That is an important capability, officials said, because the Army wants to use communications technologies to streamline its command structure.

Next January the Army plans to release a request for industry proposals for the so-called Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T). Two contractor teams would be selected in late 2002 to pursue a three-year development effort. A single contractor will be chosen in 2005 rot me production or win- 1. The Army expects the system to be in operation by 2008.

If it stays on schedule, WIN-T would completely replace MSE by 2020. The Army fielded 4,500 MSE systems worldwide between 1987 and 1993. Its expected lifespan was 15 years.

In a nutshell, WIN-T is about "high-bandwidth communications on the move," said Maj. Gen. Steven W. Boutelle, the Arm/s director of programs and architecture, for command, control, communications and computers. Previously, Boutelle was the program executive officer for command, control and computer systems. That office is responsible for the WIN-T program.

With MSE-Tritac, "We reached a point of diminishing returns," Bouteile said in an interview. Radios can be replaced, but the reality is that, "MSE was designed for fixed operations," Boutelle said. "It is not mobile enough, it is too structured, does not have the capacity for the new technologies."

That is a problem for an Army that wants to be more mobile and less dependent on hard wiring for battlefield communications.

With WIN-T, said Boutelle, the Army will be able to rake advantage of modern information technologies that are widely available to civilians, such as streaming video, high-resolution graphics, overhead imagery and web-based logistics.

The Army has been working for several years on the development of "tactical internets" for its so-called digitized brigades. In a tactical internet, vehicles are equipped with computers that display a common tactical picture, and commanders can see the location of the forces in real time. That technology, said Boutelle, "works very well at the lowest level--in individual vehicles, squads, platoons, companies, battalions." It is the same technology that allows a taxi company dispatcher to track the location of each vehicle, so he can send the cab closest to the person requesting one. "The dispatcher has a map just like we do," said Boutelle. "What we are doing has been done commercially."

The Army's lower tactical internet primarily is composed of voice and data radios connected to each other. WIN-T would be the "upper tactical internet," a high-bandwidth mobile system for voice, video and data exchange.

The lower-level networks do not cover enough territory, which limits the Army's ability to expand its area of responsibility, explained Boutelle. "As you stress the [tactical] internet across the surface of the earth, especially in the mountains," communications signals get fractured. In mountainous areas, such as the Balkans, the only way to get around that problem is to install relay packages on mountaintops, unmanned aircraft or satellites. With WIN-T, he said, those systems would be tied together and connected to the brigade, division, the joint commanders and the national authorities. That requires communications systems with much longer range, most likely a combination of satellite and terrestrial technologies, said Boutelle.

The area of responsibility for an Army division is 120x200 km. By comparison, during the Civil War, the Army would put a brigade's worth of soldiers in an area 200 meters long.

At the National Training Center today, said Boutelle, a brigade covers an area that a division covered five years ago.

Unlike most other Army acquisition programs, WIN-T will be based on commercial technologies. Contractors will be asked to design the system and propose commercially-based architectures for command, control, communications and data processing. "We are asking them to address battalion communications all the way to echelons above corps," said Boutelle. The networks will have to operate while the battalions are on the move, in environments where there is no line of sight. The key to the success of this program, he said, is to "buy systems--in an architecture--that don't get obsolete by the time you deliver them."

In WIN-T, he said, "everything that gets off the ground should be considered a relay." That includes unmanned aircraft, aerosrar balloons, other air-breathing platforms, lower orbit, medium and geo-stationary satellites. "Industry should recommend the optimum solution," said Boutelle. "It needs to be a mix."

As WIN-T comes along, he added, "we will see ABCS evolve." The Army Battle Command Systems (ABCS) is a collection of commandand-control software programs that provide mission planners access to sources of battlefield information, including, maneuver, logistics, fire support, combat services support, air defense, intelligence, electronic warfare, terrain and weather.

"ABCS has moved from heavy workstations to light workstations, to commercial notebook computers," said Boutelle. "It will continue to get smaller and faster."

The technologies in WIN-T are "key for transformation," said Boutelle. Transformation for the Army means being able to deploy quickly and to communicate seamlessly with the other services. "WIN-T is the Army component of the global...