WIESBADEN, Germany -- U.S. and British signal units joined together June 6-25, 2015 for exercise Stoney Run III at the Grafenwoehr Training Area.
The exercise brought together Soldiers and equipment from the U.S. Army's 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion and the British Army's 30th Signal Regiment.
Lt. Col. Pete Wilson, commander of the 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, said the goal of the exercise was for the Allies to work together to pass voice and data through each other's line-of-sight and satellite systems.
"This would enable us to tunnel through their equipment so that we could have a user be able to call or send an email to a U.S. station on the other side, and not necessarily have to have two different pieces of equipment there," Wilson said.
He said the British are close Allies and his unit has a good relationship with the 30th Signal Regiment.
"We have a commonality in that we're all signal. We can start from a common standpoint, our equipment is very similar, and the work that both units did in advance of this exercise has helped us start running rather than trying to plan and work through some of the obstacles we could have had," Wilson said.
Staff Sgt. Matt Griffiths, a foreman with the 250th Gurkha Signal Squadron, said the goal for the British was to try and exploit each other's bearer systems and prove the concept for passing voice and data.
"The best way to train is the way we fight, and the way we fight is, more often than not, as a coalition. So, if we train that way, then it makes things flow much better when we're actually on ops," Griffiths said.
Some of the equipment used during the exercise included U.S. CPNs and British Falcon vehicles.
1st Lt. Alyssa Tran, a platoon leader in Company B, 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, said the key to the exercise was partnership.
"We're learning how to work with each other, technically how we can link our systems," Tran said.
Wilson said the exercise was a success and met all of its training objectives. He said the next step may see some of his Soldiers and equipment deploy to the UK for a similar exercise.
"We will build on this -- I anticipate we'll try more solutions through satellites. I see us both maybe deploying to a new location and setting up on the ground and trying this as if we were deploying for a real-world operation," Wilson said.
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2nd Signal Brigade builds, operates and defends Mission Command System and networks to support unified action anytime, anywhere.
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