AC Summer 08 WIN-T Online - United States Army Signal Center of ...

vision for tactical networks and
communications and battle command
platforms. Then you have
really the working group levels that
are underneath that. This is really
where most of the work gets done.
This is where the engineers take
requirements from multiple programs
and strategize to create a
seamless integration of those programs
and platforms into a single
network. That is where you see a lot
of the engineering work done, a lot
of the lab testing done, a lot of white
papers written and specifications
that are written. All of those types
of things are done at the third
working group layer. The information
flows up and down, so as we do
things that the third tier layer, which
is the current force working group,
we bring that to tier 2. We work
with the battle command folks, John
Willison’s folks, we work with the
(navigation) folks, Johnston
Williamson, and the other folks and
we start figuring out this is what we
are bringing to the table. What can
you change to work with us better,
and what can we change to work
with you better from a technical
perspective?
Sometimes those have programmatic
impacts … So, it is going
to continue to evolve in the IPT
process because it keeps everybody
in sync. If everybody just focused on
their thing and didn’t look outside
the box, then we may have programs
that do not interoperate with one
another and don’t communicate
properly when they get to the field.
By having the engineers work
together in the IPT forum, now you
are taking those engineers and
you’re creating a forum for them to
get together and share ideas on their
programs and the things they are
doing to help create a common
vision for all of the programs, not
just the one program. So, I think you
will see it continue to evolve as we
move forward.
Josh Davidson: Will the Post-
Deployment Software Support and
Post-Production Software Support
that the CECOM Life Cycle Management
Command Software Engineer-
ing Center provides continue with
the future WIN-T increments?
Jim Sintic: Absolutely. Engineering
is only part of the battle.
(There is) the sustainment piece, not
just from a hardware perspective of
spare parts, logistics, and depots and
things like that. Then, there is a
software aspect to it, because most of
the equipment we have is software
driven, even though it sits on a
hardware platform. So, having
someone like the SEC as a partner
with the PM, like the Logistics and
Readiness Center and some of the
other organizations is critical to the
successes because software gets
dated really fast.
As you know, just working
with the Directorate of Information
Management with your computer,
you need constant patches, upgrades,
updates, security Information
Assurance Vulnerability Alert
patches, all need to be continuously
updated and analyzed all the time.
So, you need someone like the SEC
to go through and evaluate as
software updates become available.
They have to do the testing to make
sure it is both forward and backward
compatible, so that when they
deploy the patches, it doesn’t break
anything or affect anything you are
supposed to do operationally.
So, they are going to be a huge
part (of our future efforts). Actually,
more important than the actual
engineering role, up front, only for
the fact that the equipment is going
to be there for so long. It is their
responsibility to take that software
to the life cycle of the program. So, it
is really important to have that.
Josh Davidson: Can you
explain in general terms how the
components of WIN-T Increment 1
connect to a satellite and maintain
communications on the battlefield?
Jim Sintic: Basically, if you
look at the way we do things today,
there are many different avenues for
how we connect communications,
especially from a satellite perspective.
Right now, we use commercial
satellite communications terminals,
we connect to commercial satellite
communications networks and we
use Ku-band.
In the future, we will migrate
to Ka-band (from) a military operated
satellite. The first one is supposed
to be launched at the end of
this year. But, basically it’s a lot like
the technology you use with your
Direct TV or your Hughes.
The big difference on the back
end for us, is the fact that we have to
make dishes that fit inside a different
nomenclature for tactical use. (The
dishes are) towed by Humvees and
M1115 vehicles and things like that.
And the biggest difference behind
that is the fact that we use certain
communications security material on
the back end of those terminals,
because everything that goes over
the air is all encrypted. (This is)
unlike your Hughes or your Direct
TV, where it’s just commercial and
everything is out in the clear, out in
the open.
Basically, we use the same
technology in terms of: you have to
know your latitude and longitude
and of the different coordinates to
align with the bird. We have
spectrum analyzers inside the
satellite communications transportable
terminals to help do that; to
align all the different satellite
communications terminals. They all
have to operate on different frequencies
and things like that.
Josh Davidson: What is the
difference between the military and
commercial satellite systems with
regards to ruggedization?
Jim Sintic: There is a big
difference. When we build equipment
here, and it’s not just satellite
communications terminals but
everything that we build, there are
certain military specification regulations
that we have to build equipment
to. These give you all the
environmental variables that you
have to meet. You have to operate in
certain conditions and the equipment
has to be stored in certain
conditions. It has to withstand wind,
dust, electromagnetic interference,
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