For Tactical Operations Centers - Harris RF Communications ...

THE OPERATIONAL challenge
Providing IT and communications services for the
command and control of deployed forces
To provide proper command and control of their deployed
forces, commanders need facilities where the staff can
collaborate to plan and execute their missions. To be
effective, the commander and his staff need to be able to:
l Review intelligence and logistics data
l Maintain situational awareness of friendly and threat forces
l Develop plans in a collaborative environment
l Access information available at higher echelons
l Transfer plans, situational awareness data, and intelligence
data up-echelon
l Disseminate orders down-echelon
These capabilities are required at all levels of the battlefield and
are also generally applicable to management centers for medical,
border security, port management, and similar applications. A
properly designed and equipped operations center could be
deployed in support of wartime missions as well as peacekeeping
and humanitarian relief efforts.
To provide the desired capability, an operations center will
typically require:
l Access to secure communications networks
l Network technology products such as switches and routers
l Servers to host email, web access, word processing and spread
sheet productivity tools, database storage applications, etc.
l Firewall and anti-virus software
l Collaboration space both physical (desks, whiteboards,
common displays) and virtual, such as common folders and
network access sites
l Access to the Internet and restricted (military, police,
government) websites outside of the secure communications
networks
While sharing essential functionality, the complement of
equipment required at each echelon may be different. If properly
designed, however, these operations centers will differ mainly
in the quantity of the types of equipment provided, rather than
requiring a different mix of equipment.
Harris’ Tactical Operations Centers provide these capabilities
and functionality within a modular architecture that maximizes
commonality. The equipment sets have been sized to support
brigade, battalion, and company-sized deployments.
This commonality of equipment will significantly reduce the
lifecycle costs of procuring, fielding, and maintaining these
systems. Lifecycle costs are minimized due to:
l Reduced initial procurement costs due to economies of scale
l Common training material development for operation and
maintenance personnel
l Reduced training costs since soldiers familiar with one echelon
will not need to be re-trained when assigned to a different TOC
l Reduced maintenance costs due to use of common spares