Thinking outside of the box: changing the way we communicate

By Sarah Tate, Joint Multinational Training Command public affairsFebruary 3, 2015

Thinking outside of the box: changing the way we communicate
A Dutch soldier of Alpha Company, 42nd Infantry Battalion, 13th Mechanized Brigade conducts radio communications during exercise Allied Spirit at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Jan. 15, 2015. Exercise Allied Spirit in... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

HOHENFELS, Germany -- Soldiers from Canada, Hungary, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and the U.S. recently took part in exercise Allied Spirit I from Jan. 12-31 at the Hohenfels Training Area.

These soldiers face an obstacle that's faced every past rotation: the ability to communicate with others.

Countries coming here are already fitted with everything they need, including their own radio systems. And that's a problem.

On the battlefield, Allied nation forces must communicate via a secure radio. But until now, that has largely not been possible. When a radio transmission was sent over on a secure radio net, young and daring soldiers known as runners would have to relay messages between units.

"Usually we have a liaison from our Army embedded with them and they handle the conversation between the two forces," said 2nd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Sgt. James Young, describing communications between the U.S. Army and Allied forces.

Aside from the risk involved to soldiers, this method of communication has opened the margin for error, lent itself to misinterpretation and generally slowed the flow of vital information.

One of the goals of Allied Spirit I was to refine tactical interoperability and develop secure communications.

Young and his signal team, working alongside Dutch-speaking soldiers of the 13th Mechanized Brigade from the Royal Netherlands Army, took on the mission to fix this glitch and improve secure radio communication for all exercise participants. They accomplished this by implementing the Tactical Voice Bridge.

The Tactical Voice Bridge, or TVB, doesn't look as handsome as it sounds, but the small box connects the secure radio networks of one nation with those of another, not only in training, but in real world conflict as well.

The seemingly simple concept was met with challenges. These Dutch and American soldiers brought enough expertise and knowledge to work together and found a solution.

"We were unsure how it worked at first, but we figured out that we were missing a connection," Young said.

The 2CR Soldiers designed the required specifications and a Dutch fabricator took on the tedious role of taking the microphone, and connecting wire by wire to make custom adapters for each nation at the exercise.

"We will get to the point where we will have an adapter for every nation we train with," Young said. "It will be a part of an interoperability pack -- with the ability to plug in anywhere."

By implementing the Tactical Voice Bridge in future training exercises, soldiers will communicate better, and improve interoperability at every level.

"Information can now be passed a lot faster to commanders, decisions can be made a lot quicker," said British Army Corporal Steve Bill from the Mercian Regiment, 1st Battalion. "This will save lives."

Related Links:

Joint Multinational Training Command

Allied Spirit

VIDEO | Tactical voice bridge: How Allied Spirit I addresses multinational differences