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

WIN-T WIN-T–
enabling battle
By MG Dennis L. Via
The development and fielding
of the Joint Network Node over the
past four years has resulted in a
revolutionary change in command
and control communications for our
Army.
This enormous change in
tactical networks over a relatively
short period, has significantly
enhanced Army transformation as
our Army transitions from the
division-based structure to the
Brigade Combat Team modular
construct while a nation at war.
The delivery of JNN, now
Increment 1 of the Warfighter
Information Network-Tactical,
proved to be a significant enabler for
the Signal Corps.
The corps had become severely
constrained in meeting the
warfighter’s ever-increasing mobility
and bandwidth requirements using
the decades-old Mobile Subscriber
Equipment system, which was built
primarily as a voice communications
system for the United States Army’s
defense of Germany and the Fulda
Gap.
WIN-T Increment 1 provides
the new modular force with enhanced
video, voice, and data
capabilities never before seen on the
modern battlefield.
However, this revolution in
tactical networking is only just
beginning, and is about to unfold
even more rapidly as each of the
next WIN-T spirals (2, 3, and 4) are
fielded and thoroughly integrated
across our Army formations over the
next few years, marching our Army
and the Joint Force into the future.
WIN-T is the “network” in the
Army’s “Network-Centric” Future
Combat System, and as such, has
been carefully integrated into the
Army Campaign Plan to transform
MG Dennis L. Via
CLCM Commander
Equipment must be
operated by trained
Soldiers, sustained
across a system’s
lifecycle, and fully
integrated to function
across the entire
spectrum.
our Army to meet the demands of
the 21st Century. And it will be
through the collective efforts of the
Communications-Electronics Life
Cycle Management Command and
the organizations that comprise
what is known as “Army Team
C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications,
Computers, Intelligence,
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance)”
(CECOM LCMC, Program Executive
Office Command, Control and
Communications Tactical, PEO
Enterprise Information Systems,
PEO Intelligence, Electronic Warfare,
command for the Joint
Warfighter through
total system Life Cycle
Management
and Sensors, and the Communications-Electronics
Research, Development
and Engineering Center) that
will enable the Project Manager and
our Army to continue to effectively
and successfully “spiral in” revolutionary
WIN-T capabilities as the
lead catalyst in this continual
transformative process.
In 2009, we will begin delivering
WIN-T Increment 2, providing
high bandwidth “On-the-Move”
communications and network
management down to company
level. With this capability, Soldiers
at the company level will have the
capability to maintain situational
awareness, receive critical and
timely information, and pass operational
orders while on-the-move.
Needless to say, this is exciting!
But, what appeals most to this
Signal Soldier who has spent almost
28 years in uniform, is how this
capability will revolutionize the way
in which we operate and conceive
the network – combining what were
once distinctions between satellite
and terrestrial communications into
a holistically envisioned whole – one
that dynamically self forms and self
heals. But there’s more! Next we
add the air-tier.
Much of the focus of WIN-T
Increment 3 will be to provide the
configuration items that will enable
the operational capabilities of the
Future Combat System. It will build
on Increment 2 by integrating into
this holistic network an extendedrange
pathway for high capacity
connectivity using a Firescout and
Extended Range Multi-Purpose
Army Communicator 3