PIKESVILLE, Md. (Jan. 21, 2015) -- The Army National Guard's C Signal Company, 29th Infantry Division (ID) Headquarters was one the first units to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day during World War II, and it's also the first unit across the entire Army to receive new communications upgrades.
The new network End Of Life Technical Refresh (EOL Tech Refresh) effort increases capability while reducing equipment by one third. It is one of four upgrades being made to the initial version of the Army's tactical communications network known as Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T).
"We field to all Army components on an equal basis; from a WIN-T perspective the Active Army, the Reserve and the National Guard are all on one network," said Lt. Col. Joel Babbitt, product manager for WIN-T Increment 1. "We are providing improvements in security, bandwidth and capability, while reducing size weight and power (SWaP) requirements so units can be more effective and expeditionary."
The Army began fielding the WIN-T Increment 1 EOL Tech Refresh and three other major upgrades to the C Signal Company, 29th ID in the fall of 2014. Much of 29th ID is based out of Virginia, but C Signal Company is based in Maryland and was chosen due to both operational priority and because of its close proximity to the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.-based WIN-T program office. An aggressive fielding schedule is planned to rapidly bring the new EOL Tech Refresh to all Army units with WIN-T Increment 1 by the end of 2017.
"The EOL upgrade allows our equipment to process better and faster," said Maj. William Petry, company commander for the Army National Guard C Signal Company, 29th Infantry Division (ID) Headquarters. "And we reduced our footprint, the space inside the shelters, the weight of equipment and the power needed [to run it]."
Supporting over 94 percent of the Army's tactical network and a full range of military operations since 2004, WIN-T Increment 1 provides Soldiers at the battalion level and above with at-the-halt, high-speed, high-capacity voice, data and video communications. The EOL Tech Refresh modernizes the Increment 1 system and is necessary for the continued operation of the equipment on the Army's tactical network.
To increase efficiencies, the Army is fielding WIN-T Increment 1 EOL Tech Refresh at regional training sites at the same time that it fields the ongoing WIN-T Increment 1b upgrade, the Network Operations (NetOps) Convergence upgrade, and the High Capacity Line Of Sight (HCLOS) radio upgrade. The remaining units that have already received the previous upgrades will receive the EOL Tech Refresh through on-site fielding at their home stations.
"[Conducting four upgrades simultaneously is] definitely saving money and time," said Lt. Col. John Schott, J6 Chief Information Officer and G6 Army for the Maryland National Guard. "The National Guard is a one weekend a month, two week per year entity; I don't have to bring Soldiers in at four of five different times or [pull them from their jobs]. Doing it all at one time and bringing out a trained Soldier, who's going to be able to support the fight, is a win."
The EOL upgrades include new commercial hardware and software components such as routers, switches, servers and firewalls. These new products reduce SWaP by combining capabilities that once required their own hardware onto virtualized servers. Virtualization, which replaces hardware appliances with software, enables the Army to reduce the number of required Increment 1 transit cases by one third, shedding 1,000 cases over the next three years across the Army, and reduces the weight of the remaining cases. This reduction frees up strategic lift, saves space for other critical items and reduces Soldier burden, supporting a more expeditionary force.
"The system is going to be a lot easier to manage, repair and replace since a lot of the equipment is consolidated," said Staff Sgt. Jason Watnoskit Pinter, who is in charge of maintenance for the division. "It also makes it easier for troubleshooting because there are less moving parts."
Additionally, virtualization efforts replace outdated equipment and provide 50 percent more capacity for current and future modernization efforts, positioning the Army to host more services in the future. Over time, if additional capabilities are needed, the Army can simply add those to the virtualized platform.
Among the other upgrades being fielded by the Army, the WIN-T Increment 1b upgrade improves the security and efficiency of the network. It adds of the Colorless Core routing enclave, which increases the security of data as it is transported over satellites and line-of-sight links. It also adds the Network Centric Waveform (NCW) modem that optimizes bandwidth and satellite utilization and increases interoperability between WIN-T Increments 1 and 2.
The WIN-T Increment 1 NetOps Convergence upgrade simplifies and reduces the number of network management tools that communications officers (S6s and G6s) use to manage the tactical communications network. The HCLOS radio upgrade provides more than a fourfold increase in throughput, enabling higher-data applications such as full-motion video, high definition video teleconferencing, and network convergence.
The fielding of all four upgrades provides higher bandwidth and bigger pipes for troops to exchange voice, data and video more securely and efficiently than ever before. Critical to Army priorities, the enhancements also simplify the network for Soldiers while reducing hardware weight and clutter in support of a more expeditionary force.
"We treat the entire Army as a holistic piece because we all have to fight together," said Maj. Gen. Daniel P. Hughes, Program Executive Officer for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T). "It's all about getting better communications to the field and these upgrades will increase our ability to fight or support humanitarian missions in theater or civil missions of the state."
Related Links:
Army's networked communications equipment supports National Guard at home and in theater
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Army refreshes at-the-halt network for future forces
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