CTSF selected as site for CWID event

By Mr. David G Landmann (CECOM)January 12, 2011

The Central Technical Support Facility has been selected as a primary site for the execution of the annual Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration.

According to Department of the Army G-6 representative Charles McMaster, who was involved in the planning stages of CWID, the CTSF was chosen to participate in the worldwide event in part due to work currently being done in the Afghan Mission Network (AMN) through the facility's link to the Combined Federated Battle Laboratories (CFBL) network.

"The CTSF will be one of the major sites in the U.S.," McMaster said. "Its main contribution will be representing division, brigade, and company nodes on an emulated AMN."

"The CWID will highlight the capabilities of the CTSF," he added.

According to a CWID overview statement, the event is designed to provide U.S. military services, Department of Defense agencies, Homeland Security, and coalition partners with an opportunity to identify, investigate and assess technologies to solve command and control issues, and to pinpoint gaps in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

CWID is governed by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with oversight by the U.S. Joint Forces Command.

During the event, currently scheduled to take place at the CTSF in late May through mid-June, the CTSF will be linked by way of the CFBL network to military bases in the U.S. and Canada, one military site in the United Kingdom, a NATO facility in Poland, and bases in Australia and New Zealand.

"Originally," McMaster explained, "CWID focused on the military aspects of home security, home defense and law enforcement. This year, CWID is working to refocus on actual operational environments."

McMaster said CWID organizers are in the process of requesting Soldier involvement.

"We're hoping to have a team of Soldiers to assist in the assessment of the trials executed here at the CTSF," he said.

The CWID will involve an estimated 15 Soldiers to augment CTSF test personnel. The facility, McMaster said, can also expect a number of visiting observer/reviewers during the test time frame.

The Army has participated in CWID for several years in coordination with the U.S. Navy at Dahlgren, VA. The CTSF was asked during the planning phases of this year's demonstration to participate as the Army's representative site. McMaster said the CTSF is likely to retain that position "for 2011 and beyond."

According to CWID planning documents, the objectives of this year's demonstration include:

Aca,!AcEnhancing coalition, Joint and service integration and interoperability to facilitate command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) transport and distribution, and to improve air and missile defense

Aca,!AcEnhancing the broad spectrum of government integration and interoperability to support sustainable, secure mission partner collaboration

Aca,!AcEnhancing coalition C4ISR capabilities to provide secure, deployable, modular wireless communications in support of distributed small unit operations

Aca,!AcImproving cross-domain capabilities in warfare operations.