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Indian Ocean regions, maintained careful
coordination with operators and area
supervisors. The JFTOC watch officer
ensured that operators at the supporting
shore commands were properly executing
the requirements of the exercise.
Furthermore, JFTOC was responsible
for tracking the real-time communications
capabilities and limitations of the
units involved, as well as informing the
NCTAMS LANT chain of command of relevant
changes in capabilities.
BA12 was designed to challenge the
operational commanders as well as the
operating forces. As part of the scenario,
Commander Strike Force Training Atlantic
(CSFTL) laid the blueprint for just how
and when communications outages
would occur to force units to quickly
come up with alternatives. For example, if
super high frequency (SHF) IP platforms
were denied, there was an extremely
high frequency (EHF) platform available.
If an UHF command net was lost, EHF or
Iridium satellite phones could be used for
secure point-to-point communications.
The ability to quickly switch from one
communications method to another is
important because capabilities in real
operating environments can be lost or
denied by enemy forces at any time, and
the various frequencies and methods of
communications cannot be used at the
same time, therefore, communications
professionals must be able to quickly
assess a lost connection, rapidly restore it,
or come up with an alternative.
NCTAMS LANT and its subordinate
commands, NCTS Naples and NCTS Bahrain,
and NAVSATCOMMFAC Northwest,
UARNOC and the commercial SHF providers
shared tasks relating to the planned
outages and provided procedures to
prevent disruption. Procedures included
testing the connectivity of existing circuit
trunks and ensuring non-disruption
by instructing operators how to maintain
connectivity and verify that alternate circuit
trunks were in place in the event of
a circuit outage where outages were not
planned.
NCTAMS LANT’s operational priorities
are always defined by the current situation.
The command’s mission of providing
classified and unclassified messaging,
voice, data and video to Navy, joint and
coalition units does not change. If, however,
NCTAMS LANT knows that a unit or
group of units has a planned outage on
Chief Warrant
Officer 3 Terrill
Stafford and Ensign
Adria Hicks
on watch in the
NCTAMS LANT
Joint Fleet Telecommunications
Operations Center,
the central
point of contact
for communications
within the
Atlantic, Mediterranean
and
Indian Ocean
regions. NCTAMS
LANT provides
classified and unclassified messaging, voice, data and video to Navy, joint and coalition units.
the only SHF IP path, maintaining the
EHF IP path becomes more important.
To this end, NCTAMS LANT, the regional
provider of secure and non-secure voice,
messaging, video and data platforms
to surface, subsurface, air and ground
forces, instituted watch stander reporting
procedures for leadership in the chain of
command to keep them informed of the
rapidly changing capabilities and limitations
of exercise participants.
Operators and their supervisors paid
special attention to how unplanned outages
and weather-related problems could
degrade communications capabilities.
For example, rain may cause outages for
equipment operating in EHF, which might
be used as an alternate IP path in the
event of an SHF outage. Heavy winds and
heavy seas may inhibit a ship’s or shore
facility’s ability to track a satellite. Therefore,
watch standers at NCTAMS LANT
are always mindful of any conditions that
may disrupt communications.
To ensure successful communications
between units, NCTAMS LANT embedded
junior enlisted personnel and officers
on board the USS Enterprise (CVN 65) and
USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7). This enabled both
the ships’ and NCTAMS LANT’s personnel
to learn firsthand about the communications
and troubleshooting capabilities of
one another and to refine the reporting
and troubleshooting procedures of each
in a controlled exercise environment.
Lessons learned included new techniques
in the detection of satellite jamming
and the importance of maintaining
a SHF IP link during rainy conditions. If it is
raining units can’t rely solely on SHF.
During BA12, whether it was a denial
of services attack, closed ports, denial of
UHF voice nets or unplanned outages,
ships’ personnel kept their chains of command
informed of their communications
capabilities and limitations.
Providers, such as NCTAMS LANT
and NCTS Naples, NAVSATCOMMFAC
Lago di Patria, Italy, NAVSATCOMMFAC
Northwest, UARNOC, the Landstuhl
Global Information Grid Facility, NCTS
Bahrain, and commercial satellite providers
located in Holmdel, N.J., and
Fuchsstadt, Germany, tracked anomalies
and responded via troubleshooting procedures,
communications spot reports
(COMSPOT) and service advisories to
units reporting problems.
The vigilant maintenance of the communications
links between ship and
shore demonstrated that even in a less
than ideal communications environment,
the command and control capability
of shore commanders is not lost, nor is
the ability to actively troubleshoot and
restore communications circuits.
Results of exercises demonstrated the
ability of joint U.S. amphibious units to
effectively operate in a challenging communications
environment with both U.S.
and international military forces. The high
visibility of the exercises, which included
national and international media coverage,
embarked Congressional leaders and
foreign military leaders, marked not only
a tremendous operational success for the
Navy/Marine Corps team, but a diplomatic
success as well.
Lt. Peter J. Beardsley is a NCTAMS LANT JFTOC
watch officer.
The War of 1812
From 2012 to 2015, the United States Navy and its partners,
the U.S. Marine Corps and Coast Guard, will commemorate the
Bicentennial of the War of 1812 and the writing of our National
Anthem, the Star Spangled Banner. It is remarkable that 200
years ago, the first declared war in our nation’s history was
fought against the nation (now two nations, the United Kingdom
and Canada) which have become our closest allies. Many things
change in 200 years, but what doesn’t change is the importance
of sea power in the affairs of maritime nations.
Since its birth in 1776, the United States has always been a
maritime nation, which means that unobstructed access to
and free use of the world’s oceans are essential to our national
welfare and prosperity. That’s what the United States went to
war in 1812 to defend, and that is what the U.S. Navy has been
protecting ever since.
Why is keeping the seas free so important Here are a few
facts about the world:
✔ 70 percent of the world is covered by the oceans.
✔ 80 percent of the world’s people live near the oceans.
✔ 90 percent of all international trade travels on the oceans.
✔ 95 percent of all global communications are transported under
the oceans.
Looking at those numbers, one begins to understand the
immense importance of ensuring the freedom of the oceans
with capable and effective sea services.
The piracy off the Horn of Africa that emerged in the first
decades of the 21st century reminds us of the 18th century
Barbary Coast pirates and the threat they posed to our nation
in its early years. In response to that threat, the United States
commissioned six frigates, built up and down the Atlantic coast
from New Hampshire to Virginia. Since America’s Navy began
with those first six frigates, American sea power has been
essential to countering threats, winning wars and furthering the
interests of peace and prosperity worldwide.
Our sea services team and its capabilities are absolutely
critical to our nation’s security. We learned that lesson first and
well during the War of 1812, and that tuition is worth reviewing
again as we commemorate the war’s bicentennial over the next
several years.
To say a lot has changed in the last 200 years is an obvious
understatement. In 1812 America’s Navy operated wooden
ships; now it operates steel ships and is working on constructing
ships of futuristic synthetic materials. The sails powered by wind
in 1812 have given way consecutively to steam (from coal and
then oil), to gas turbines, to nuclear energy — and in the future
to green energy sources.
In 1812, the Navy’s situational awareness was limited to the
horizon of visibility from the top of the tallest mast on a ship.
Today, America’s Navy enjoys instantaneous communications to
any point on the globe, to the bottom of the ocean, and to and
from outer space.
The smoothbore cannons of 1812 have metamorphosed
into modern naval guns, aircraft, missiles and torpedoes, and
America’s Navy is on course to a force armed with lasers and
railguns, technologies unimaginable to the Sailors who fought
in the War of 1812.
From Our Flag Was Still There.org
Today, one of those
first six frigates
that 200 years ago
fought in the War
of 1812, the USS
Constitution, is
still a commissioned
ship in the U.S. Navy.
She is a tangible link
to those critical events
in our nation’s history, and
anchors one end of the arcs
of technological change
just described. As such,
she invites attention to
the intangible lessons of the War of 1812 that have shaped,
and must continue to shape, the nation’s sea services today
and in the future. The traditions, customs, and norms of the
U.S. Navy in the 21st century were laid down in the War of 1812.
The outstanding Navy commanders of the War of 1812, such
as Stephen Decatur, Isaac Hull, Oliver Hazard Perry, Thomas
Macdonough, Charles Morris and others, set benchmarks for
leadership, seamanship and innovation that shape and inform
the officer corps of America’s Navy today.
The performance of America’s Sailors and Marines in that
war, fighting always against great odds and in great peril, set
the standards proudly met by our ships’ crews over the last 200
years and today.
Ultimately, the commemoration of the Bicentennial of the War
of 1812 is a salute to all of our Sailors and Marines who fought so
gallantly against great odds in that conflict, in all of our nation’s
conflicts between then and now, and those who are today
defending freedom around the world — from the mountains of
Afghanistan to the coasts of Africa to the Straits of Hormuz —
and standing ready to provide compassionate humanitarian aid
from Haiti to Japan to wherever catastrophe strikes.
The Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard reflect the quality
of the people that served over the last 200 years, and the tens
of thousands of Sailors and Marines now making sacrifices
every day, something that America can be very grateful has not
changed over the past 200 years.
If America remembers the lessons of the naval war of 1812,
lessons paid for with the lives of Sailors and Marines, then
America can be confident that the nation will always answer
Francis Scott Key’s question in the affirmative: Oh, say does that
Star-Spangled Banner yet wave O’er the land of the free, and
the home of the brave
Beginning in April 2012 and continuing through 2015, the
Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard will commemorate the
Bicentennial of the War of 1812 and The Star Spangled Banner.
Events will include Blue Angels air shows, visits by ships of the
U.S. Navy and international navies, parades of tall ships and
“Galley Wars” cook-off events.
For more information, go to www.ourflagwasstillthere.org/.
U.S. Navy War of 1812 Commemoration site
60 CHIPS www.doncio.navy.mil/chips Dedicated to Sharing Information - Technology - Experience CHIPS April – June 2012 61