When our nation’s warfighters call, Team Tobyhanna answers with full-scale warfighter support.
The Modernization of Enterprise Terminal is a vital communication tool that is an important component of Tobyhanna Army Depot’s expansive and critical satellite communications mission.
In addition to building and testing these terminals to ensure optimal performance, members of Tobyhanna’s civilian workforce offer trainings to make sure warfighters unlock the full potential of the system.
Through a mixture of classroom instruction and hands-on training, Tobyhanna subject matter experts teach warfighters how to operate and maintain their terminals.
The course curriculum was developed by Tobyhanna Army Depot’s Satellite Communications & Site Installation Division in cooperation with both the Army (Product Manager Wideband Enterprise Satellite Systems) and the Air Force (Air Force Wideband Enterprise Terminals).
After a lengthy track record of excellent legacy sustainment courses taught at the depot, the enterprises requested Team Tobyhanna develop an updated sustainment course.
Electronics Technician William Carbohn serves as an instructor for the sustainment courses and said this training equips our warfighters with the readiness knowledge required to ensure communication supremacy on the battlefield of today and the future.
“Our warfighters are the first line of defense on these terminals, and without them, the whole communications infrastructure basically stops. They need to be well aware of how to maintain and fix these terminals to keep everything running with minimal help from the outside,” said Carbohn. “It's very important. People's lives can depend on it.”
The new sustainment classes, which are designed for active-duty operators and maintainers stationed at strategic Department of Defense wideband satellite communications sites around the globe, began being developed around 2020 with a steady stream of about 10 classes per year since 2021.
Tobyhanna personnel have offered this critical training to countless warfighters, welcoming them to the installation and travelling across the globe to meet their needs in the field. To date, Tobyhanna has welcomed instructors from the Space Force 8th Training Squadron, Inspectors from the Defense Information Systems Agency Pacific Quality Assurance Branch, and Army staff from U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command G-3/5 Transport Management Division. This year, the Navy plans to send one civilian observer to review the class, with plans to send students in 2026.
The most recent students arrived from Japan and were the first to experience an important addition to the course – a Small Fixed Terminal.
Recently constructed on the installation, the addition of this terminal, along with the Large Fixed Terminal and Standard Transportable Terminal, means course instructors will now be able to train warfighters on all three variants of the Modernization of Enterprise Terminals Satellite Communications System at Tobyhanna.
Tobyhanna Army Depot Satellite Communications & Site Installation Division Chief Michael Vivlemore said this addition is further proof that Tobyhanna is the ideal site for these trainings because it is one of the only sites capable of providing hands-on training using the exact system a soldier will use in the battlefield while having zero impact on active missions.
“This is one of the few places that you can get several variants in a training environment and not impact a live mission,” said Vivlemore. “If warfighters are going as in-depth as these trainings go into troubleshooting and maintenance on their own terminals, that would impact ongoing missions.”
Vivlemore and others from the division also point to the instructors’ expertise and the depot’s full-scale support of the Modernized Enterprise Terminal as reasons why the training has enjoyed constant success.
Carbohn said there are so many well-rounded instructors present at Tobyhanna because of the complete support the depot provides to the Modernized Enterprise Terminal and the information shared amongst teammates. Having either built, tested, and trained these systems themselves or worked with someone who has, Carbohn and others possess a comprehensive knowledge of the terminals.
“There's a good communication between the personnel that are building the terminals, those testing them, and the instructors,” said Carbohn. “With the systems constantly evolving, we all work together as a big team to make sure that Tobyhanna is able to not only build these terminals correctly, test them, but also make sure that we're passing along the correct information to our warfighters.”
Depot leadership recognizes the efficacy and importance of these trainings toward developing a modern, ready, and prepared generation of warfighters. Tobyhanna’s modernization efforts will not only enable this initiative to continue to thrive but increase its impact as well. Projects including an ongoing Proto-Type Integration Test and Training facility renovation as well as a radar campus expansion will increase the number of classrooms in quantity and size as well as render changes in weather unable to affect the training schedule.
This commitment to increasing trainings both in quality and quantity will directly impact readiness for our nation’s warfighters, who Carbohn said are clamoring to get into the class.
As Tobyhanna leads the charge to continuously improve the course to match the innovative technology at our warfighters’ fingertips, Carbohn said one thing has remained the same – excellent reviews from those taking the course.
“Tobyhanna has consistently done incredibly well with our feedback, and the highest rating we often get is the knowledge of the instructors. We're not just instructing with information that we got second hand from somebody else. We’re working in the field we’re teaching in,” said Carbohn.
The MET training effort is directly aligned with Tobyhanna’s long-range strategic plan, TOBY2035 – specifically the C5ISR Readiness and Shape the Future lines of effort. The plan aims to posture Tobyhanna for future force requirements.
Tobyhanna Army Depot is a recognized leader in providing world-class logistics support for command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C5ISR) systems across the Department of Defense. Tobyhanna’s Corporate Philosophy, dedicated work force and electronics expertise ensure the depot is the joint C5ISR provider of choice for all branches of the Armed Forces and industry partners.
Tobyhanna’s unparalleled capabilities include full-spectrum logistics support for sustainment, overhaul and repair, fabrication and manufacturing, engineering design and development, systems integration, post production software support, technology insertion, modification, foreign military sales and global field support to our joint warfighters.
About 3,100 personnel are employed at Tobyhanna, located in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania. Tobyhanna Army Depot is part of the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command. Headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, the command’s mission is to deliver integrated C5ISR weapon systems, business systems, and medical sustainment to enable full spectrum combat operations at the point of need.
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