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PHILADELPHIA — To get to a lighter, faster and simpler battlefield communications network, commanders are taking action.
As the Army leverages operational units to transform in contact over the next 18-24 months, commanders are experimenting with critical capabilities and new task organization to help shape a network in which they can be more dispersed and still maintain effective command and control against sophisticated adversaries.
“These brigade commanders, battalion commanders, sergeants major, warrant officers that are in the formations, that are technical experts — they are going to have the leeway to decide how we are best organized for the modern battlefield,” said Chief of Staff of the Army, Gen. Randy George, during his recent keynote at the Army’s Technical Exchange Meeting 12, held in Philadelphia in May. “The network is our number one priority; it’s the one thing that ties everything else together … We are going to transform from the bottom up.”
The Army Network Cross-Functional Team and the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, or PEO C3T, which co-hosted the TEM, are providing direction and support to units transforming in contact while obtaining feedback from commanders to build network capability options — especially command post maneuverability and survivability.
“As I talk to commanders, they tell me they approach the fight with the network we give them. I think the command post capabilities offer an opportunity for us to change paradigm, allowing us to adapt the network to how the commander wants to fight,” said Mark Kitz, PEO for C3T. “I see us as having options that can be more responsive to different needs for each commander.”
In addition to increasing network experimentation during operational training exercises, the Army’s transform in contact effort includes the evaluation of electronic warfare, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and the ever-critical human factor of determining new ways for personnel and tactics to align with technologies.
The Army chose the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) (2-101) and the division’s Combat Aviation Brigade based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to be part of transform in contact, experimenting with command post and air-to-ground networked communications technologies during their third annual Operation Lethal Eagle exercise held in April 2024.
The 2-101, which has begun its own transformation from infantry brigade combat team to mobile brigade combat team, will continue to employ the systems for further evaluation at a Joint Readiness Training Center rotation later this summer.
“How do you make yourself smaller and harder to kill? You make the command post the smallest possible, and decrease the set-up and tear-down times,” said Col. James Stultz, 2-101 commander, while speaking on a TEM 12 panel that addressed mobile and survivable command posts. “From the time I took command to Operation Lethal Eagle, we reduced the command post set-up time from six hours to less than 20 minutes,” he said, with plans to continue to reduce set up times even further.
Throughout Operation Lethal Eagle, the command post configurations used the Integrated Tactical Network, or ITN, and Mounted Mission Command Software to maintain communications and situational awareness. The 2-101 conducted maneuvers at brigade and below nearly exclusively over the ITN, which enables encrypted data to be securely transmitted over military or commercial networks, cellular networks or compatible but non-military waveforms — while also reducing electromagnetic signature.
“If we're fighting in an urban environment, you can really hide anywhere in that environment by … just blending in with the existing signal noise, allowing us to be a needle in a haystack of needles,” Stultz said.
Additionally, Stultz told the industry partners at TEM that units would benefit from cloud applications that are device-agnostic and accessible throughout the mission, which aligns with the Army’s plans to move towards smaller, mobile, and more protected network technologies and transition to a data-centric architecture with increased transport options.
“I think [a data centric Army] will allow us to continue to be survivable, flat, fast and accurate,” he said.
At Operation Lethal Eagle, another element of the 101st, its Combat Aviation Brigade, conducted assaults that spanned two neighboring states and covered 400 nautical miles while experimenting with the ITN aerial kit, which is used to establish a mesh network between Soldiers in the air and on the ground.
“Combat forces must be able to see themselves during Long-Range Large-Scale Air Assault operations to make the best decisions for themselves and the mission, and we look forward to JRTC this summer to continue to enhance this capability,” said Maj. Brad Anderson, assistant product manager assigned to PEO C3T’s PM Tactical Radios.
During TEM 12, Col. Rob Shaw, who recently relinquished command of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division (3-25), addressed transforming in contact within the Pacific area of operations.
“The network is not just important – in my view, it is the most important, because you have to start there before you can do any of the other warfighting functions,” he said.
The 3-25’s experimentation in the Pacific stretches the network and command and control capabilities in an operating environment that is noncontiguous and highly complex. For example, during the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Rotation in November 2023, the 3-25 prepared for Pacific-based operations by pushing some of the network complexities normally experienced at brigade up to division for the first time, enabling greater mobility and flexibility at lower echelons. Incorporating the ITN, the unit established communications up to division and down to the tactical command post to follow each tactical operations center movement.
Shaw described future command posts as unconventional — possibly in a city subway or on top of a high-rise building — making it important for his unit to experiment with options to conduct command and control that are both vehicle and transport agnostic, while remaining low signature.
As the Army shapes these options, he stressed the importance of allowing both commanders and their Soldiers the opportunity to help drive decisions.
“Some of the best ideas and some of the innovation that the 3-25 can take credit for over the last year originated in the minds of a [warrant officer] and a staff sergeant,” Shaw said.
Feedback from other units, such as the 1st Brigade Stryker Team, 2nd Infantry Division, at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, coupled with the imperative from the CSA, laid the groundwork to align decentralized efforts into one program to provide the Army with mobile, modular C2 options. This effort, assigned to PEO C3T, will soon produce a unit survey and request for information on modular command posts later this summer.
At the close of TEM 12, Army network leaders asked industry partners for continued collaboration on C2 on-the-move approaches, seeking their thoughts on acquisition approaches, experimentation, and long-term strategies that allow for iteration.
“It's a really heartening time to be a leader in the Army because there is a lot of urgency and ownership of this problem,” Shaw said. “Your lives and the lives of your Soldiers depend on us getting this right.”
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The U.S. Army Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T) develops, acquires, fields and supports the Army's Unified Network (Tactical and Enterprise) to ensure force readiness in both current missions and potential future large scale combat operations. This critical Army modernization priority delivers resilient terrestrial and satellite communications capabilities to ensure commanders and Soldiers remain connected and informed at all times, even in the most austere and hostile environments. PEO C3T is delivering an integrated Unified Network to regions around the globe, enabling high-speed, high-capacity voice, data and video communications to an Army user base that includes joint, coalition and other mission partners.
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