FORT BELVOIR, Va. (June 10, 2022) — From large public events to natural disasters, reliable situational awareness and communications among first responders, military members and officials is always vital.
The Army’s Command, Control, Computers, Communications, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center’s Tactical Assault Kit (TAK) Product Center recently transitioned a tool called “WebTAK” that meets this need.
Based off the Android Tactical Assault Kit, WebTAK, developed by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, aims to enhance decision support, situational awareness and give first-responders, military units and other users a way to communicate and respond to potential threats, and to crises in real-time.
“With the transition, we are making this capability available to a growing ecosystem of 250,000 TAK users,” said Ryan McLean, TAK Product Center director. “DTRA has achieved fantastic cost efficiencies and delivered a lightweight, highly capable web client to the TAK tool chest. While WebTAK configuration management and continuous delivery is now in the hands of the TAK Product Center, DTRA will remain an integral part of WebTAK’s continued development and success. We couldn’t be more excited to steward this capability on behalf of the end users.”
Like ATAK, WebTAK is a geospatial collaboration platform that allows users to share information, and access data to improve real-time situational awareness. WebTAK also provides a variety of capabilities for critical and non-critical operations, including text messaging, sharing map overlays and data, syncing operations, accessing a variety of live video feeds ranging from aircraft to close-circuit TVs, receiving routes, image and file sharing, and providing video playback.
“WebTAK securely links users together to share intel, data feeds, assets, and personnel, into a single geo-rectified common operating picture,” explained Dr. G. Jeremy Leong, DTRA Advanced Research Division Program Manager. “This allows users to share information, coordinate operations, and allocate resources effectively in real time to provide an effective, meaningful, and timely response. WebTAK represents many of the critical enablers necessary for situational awareness.”
“The software is also fully interoperable with other TAK products and due to its unlimited rights software and open source coding, anyone in the government- local, state or federal- can access and use it” added McLean.
Because of its accessibility, applicability, and usability, national agencies, law enforcement, and major Department of Defense organizations have adopted WebTAK as a situational awareness, coordination, and response tool, using the system to respond to a breadth of situations, from wildfires in California, to hurricanes in the southern U.S. and global military operations.
“DTRA and the TAK Product Center have a very supportive working relationship,” said Dr. Ken Evensen, DTRA Advanced Research Division Chief. “This made the transition of WebTAK very easy and seamless and is an example of a very successful collaborative relationship between commands fully committed to supporting the warfighter, interagency partners, first responders, and anyone else who could benefit from WebTAK’s capabilities.”
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The C5ISR Center is the Army’s applied research and advanced technology development center for C5ISR capabilities. As the Army’s primary integrator of C5ISR technologies and systems, the center develops and matures capabilities that support all six Army modernization priorities, enabling information dominance and tactical overmatch for the joint warfighter.
The C5ISR Center is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM). Through collaboration across the command’s core technical competencies, DEVCOM leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win our nation’s wars and come home safely. DEVCOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.
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