REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (May 5, 2021) – The U.S. Army Redstone Test Center, also known as RTC, is home to the Distributed Test Control Center (DTCC). For years the DTCC was one of RTC’s best kept secrets, until now.
RTC’s DTCC team has been honored once more, this time with the 2020 Army Modeling and Simulation Award in Test and Evaluation for their leadership and expertise in support of the Program Executive Office (PEO) Aviation Combat Aviation Brigade Architecture Integration Laboratory (CAB AIL). The award recognizes Dr. Ken LeSueur, Tilghman Turner, Sean Millich, and Julie Melville, as well as contractor partners from Engineering, Research and Consulting, Inc. (ERC), Geeks and Nerds (GaN), AI Signal Research, Inc. (ASRI) and Trideum Corporation.
The Future Operations Office of PEO Aviation requested RTC’s DTCC team lead the integration effort for CAB AIL, which included supporting high fidelity network modeling. The DTCC team provided a simulated tactical network allowing the System Integration Laboratories (SILs) that previously acted as single entities to be tied together and interact with other laboratories and simulated entities to fully exercise communication links critical to the customer’s directive to create a cohesive environment familiar to a CAB commander.
“A Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) commander must understand how new technologies will affect the brigade as a whole in order to make informed decisions about what to approve for use in the cockpit of Army aviation platforms,” said Steve Nine, chief of RTC’s Modeling and Simulation Division.
RTC has been providing this type of distributed test support since 2001, increasing the capabilities over the past five years to include persistent connections to many DoD networks as well as “virtual blockhouse” support. Presently, the DTCC is capable of hosting up to five different remote test events at one time.
The RTC Commander, Col. Steven Braddom said the role of Test and Evaluation is critical in the acquisition of new technology for our forces.
“The CAB AIL program has instituted a capability that allows the evaluation of mission critical technology and capabilities at the CAB level, versus previous efforts that were limited to a single platform,” said Braddom. “This allows the Acquisition community the ability to determine deeper implications of a system under test, and, with Soldier involvement, allows a combatant commander the ability to understand how a new piece of equipment will affect the overall CAB.”
The network environment CAB AIL provides, together with the exceptional and award-winning efforts of RTC’s DTCC team, is further evidence of RTC’s commitment to providing superior test and evaluation in support of Army modernization.
“The successful realization of this lab is supremely important as the Army modernizes its Aviation fleet,” said Nine, “The lab will be a critical piece of test infrastructure for upcoming test events involving Future Vertical Lift aircraft.”
Social Sharing