Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD-- The Year 2016 marks the 25th Anniversary of the CECOM SEC ARAT. Led by the SEC ARAT Program Office (ARAT-PO) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, the SEC ARAT has a mission, directed by Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA), to develop and distribute software used by globally-deployed Soldiers to defeat threats in their operational environment. More than a software engineering organization, the SEC ARAT provides a threat analysis, software development and testing, and product distribution capability relatively unique in the Army.
In December 1991, HQDA directed the Army Materiel Command to take the lead to sustain the software in Army Target Sensing Systems (ATSS), a category of tactical weapons and sensor systems that rely on embedded, well-defined target or emitter signature data for specific target or threat identification. This direction was the genesis of the ARAT in what is now CECOM's Software Engineering Center (SEC). Initially, the SEC ARAT focused on a family of Electronic Warfare (EW) ATSS known as Radar Warning Receivers (aka Radar Signal Detecting Sets). Collectively referred to as Aviation Survivability Equipment (ASE), these ATSS detect and identify specific radar-based threats such as air defense missiles and radar-guided air defense guns.
After 20 years of support to EW ATSS, the SEC ARAT mission expanded as it became the organization providing software sustainment of the Common Missile Warning System (CMWS) in 2011. Because the CMWS identifies infrared and electro-optical missile threats and supports countermeasure (such as flares) deployment, the SEC ARAT saw its mission focus grow beyond the radar portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS).
As a further testament to the capabilities of the SEC ARAT, the Army transitioned the Counter Radio Frequency Improvised Explosive Device EW (CREW) Duke system to the ARAT for software sustainment in 2013. This expanded the SEC ARAT mission again, this time to providing support to ground-based EW systems.
The first three months of 2016 brought even more mission growth to the SEC ARAT. With a major revision to Army Regulation 525-15 in February and an updated "Army Materiel Command Charter for the ARAT-PO" released in March, the SEC ARAT-PO has become the Army's organization with executive agent responsibilities to rapidly reprogram and field software in EW, Spectrum Management Operations and Cyber Electromagnetic capable systems. This mission now makes the SEC ARAT a key enabler of Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) through its future sustainment of critical CEMA systems software.
Although its mission has grown in its first 25 years of existence, the SEC ARAT has never lost focus of its #1 mission- supporting Commanders and Soldiers across the full range of military operations. Whether it's working 24/7 to develop a software solution in response to a threat, answering a Soldier's question from wherever they may be deployed, or assisting Soldiers in the field or on the flightline to help them better understand their systems, the ARAT has, and will continue, to stand ready to provide dedicated support and afford a globally deployed and regional focused Army with a combat multiplier capable of defeating threats in the EMS operational environment.
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