To upgrade the Army's legacy network equipment in Korea during a high operations tempo, Project Manager Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) led a team that thought outside the box.
"Instead of following the normal upgrade procedure and shipping the equipment back to the factory in the states, the team brought the factory to Korea," said Col. Raymond K. Compton, former product manager (PdM) for WIN-T Increment 1 who led the network equipment upgrade in Korea.
It was previously very difficult to provide equipment upgrades to this location. With this in mind, instead of performing the work at its U.S. facilities, the contractor sent a specialized team, along with all of the needed parts, tools and equipment to the forward unit-owned Regional Support Center (RSC) to conduct the upgrade there. While the average timeframe for these upgrades is typically 12 weeks, the Korean effort, which concluded on July 8, was completed in 40 days.
"The Second Infantry Division (2ID) was under a condensed timeline due to mission requirements," said Maj. Rhea Pritchett, assistant PdM for WIN-T Increment.1. "Based on their high operations tempo there was no other way to perform the upgrade other than on site."
This unique tactic eliminated the significant delays of shipping equipment from Korea to the States and back again, and therefore equipment downtime for 2 ID was greatly minimized. There was also significant cost avoidance by conducting the effort on site because it cut down on the cost of shipping back to the source of repair, as well as having to build an entire factory to support the mission from start to finish, Pritchett said.
Similar to a home Internet connection, WIN-T Increment 1 establishes a network backbone that provides the full range of data, voice and video communications at battalion level and above. These new WIN-T Increment 1 technology insertions are meeting the needs of the units by providing users with a higher quality of service and speed within the network.
"By bringing Korea up to the latest baseline within the WIN-T network, they now have the latest technology and a faster and more secure network to conduct their mission," said Lt. Col. Jason K. Shepard, PdM for WIN-T Increment 1. "Being able to provide that capability is of great significance for the Army."
Among the many capability improvements offered by the upgrades, telephonic functionality was improved, with the team installing new routers as well as a new system that allows for better call quality. On the network side, a new Wide Area Network optimization tool allows for increased throughput, and improved information assurance and cryptographic devices were also inserted.
"The entire Second Infantry Division (2ID) in Korea will use this equipment both in day to day operations and in any conflicts that may arise in that area," Pritchett said. "This upgrade provides the mission command needed for defending the borders between North Korea and South Korea."
Army units originally fielded with the earliest version of the Army's network, the Joint Network Node (JNN) which began its fielding back in 2004, needed to be upgraded with newer technology for increased capability and a longer equipment life cycle. This upgrade effort, referred to as the WIN-T Increment1A Baseline, gives the original JNN (Lots 1-9) the same functionality and hardware baseline as the newer WIN-T Increment 1 (Lot 10). The Increment 1A Baseline effort for 2ID marked the last of nine division headquarters that needed to be upgraded to standardize the technology baseline across 2ID and the entire Army fleet. Roughly 28 units across the Army still need to be upgraded, with the completion of the entire Increment 1A Baseline projected for the spring of 2012.
The main purpose of this upgrade was to bring all WIN-T Increment 1 equipment to a common functional baseline, which was achieved by replacing legacy commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment with the latest technology to improve network connectivity, reliability and speed, said Jo-Ann Royal, General Dynamics C4 Systems program manager for WIN-T Increment 1A Upgrade and Reset.
The effort involved upgrading significant COTS components and assemblies, including routers, communications security, software, and associated shelter cases. These upgrades were performed on one Baseband TAC Hub, seven (JNN) shelters, and 15 Battalion Command Post Nodes (BCPN), along with their Network Operations suites and battlefield video teleconference suites. New modems were also installed on the Satellite Transportable Terminals to provide them with military satellite communications (Ka band) capability.
Training was a vital part of the Increment 1A Baseline effort, for the 2ID in Korea as well as the other upgraded units worldwide, to bring users up to speed on all of the newly upgraded equipment. The training piece was supported by the CECOM Information Technology-Field Support Branch (IT-FSB), which provides the WIN-T Increment 1A Delta training to Soldiers across the Army and National Guard.
"Often you will find Soldiers that have not worked on the equipment before," said Dennis Jones, project lead for CECOM IT-FSB WIN-T Increment 1A Delta Training. "It is very important that they understand and know that technology, its capabilities and how to troubleshoot it in a real network."
During the Soldiers' three-week training, the IT-FSB runs through an overview of the equipment and conducts several different training events, which are finalized with a capstone event--a systems-wide network training exercise that focuses heavily on system-level network troubleshooting.
"If we don't do this training and the Soldiers are not proficient on the equipment, then they cannot provide the services to the end users on the battlefield," Jones said. "The Soldiers who have completed the training are very well qualified to conduct their mission."
Currently the IT-FSB has 16 upgrade reset training events scheduled worldwide, with roughly 23 more units still to be trained.
Going forward, WIN-T Increment 1B will be the next technology insertion to be completed and will be fielded roughly the same time as WIN-T Increment 2 -- the next increment of the Army's tactical network which will provide self-healing and on-the-move capabilities. The first unit equipped with Increment 2 is expected in 2012. In the future and depending on mission requirements, some units will remain on the Increment 1B technology, while others will be fielded with WIN-T Increment 2. Both the WIN-T Increment 1A and 1B baseline efforts are a vital piece in laying the ground work for eventual fielding of WIN-T Increment 2.
"Not only does the WIN-T Increment 1A Baseline prepare for the future growth of the entire Increment 1 fleet of equipment, it helps pave the way for future increments of the WIN-T network," Compton said.
Amy Walker is a staff writer for Symbolic Systems, Inc. supporting the Army's Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T).
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