FORT HOOD, Texas - The Whitfill Central Technical Support Facility has become the hub of activity in a joint forces test event designed to study current and future information exchanges in a joint Army-Air Force-Navy environment.
The event, the Air Ground Integration Layer Exploration Fires Main Exercise 10.1 test, runs through Jan. 29, 2010 at the CTSF.
The CTSF was key in the coordination of the event, and is participating in it with Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., the Redstone Test Center, Ala.; Nellis Air Force Base, N.V.; the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, Calif.; White Sands Missile Range, N.M.; the U.S. Air Force's Simulation and Analysis Facility, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Patuxent River, Md.
According to Deon Stanfield, CTSF joint operations officer, the MAINEX 10.1 is a limited technical and operational assessment of current Joint Fires systems with the Army's system of software systems.
Stanfield said data gained during the AGILE Fires exercise will be used to pinpoint gaps in joint information exchange requirements, and to work toward effective information transfer between and within air and ground domains.
Mathew Meverden, joint test lead for the CTSF, said the primary objectives of the test event will be to actively assist Air Force Modeling and Simulations in growing and maturing its existing data links and its emerging command and control capabilities.
"We'll also focus on the interoperability between air and ground communication layers, and capture the requirements for emerging technologies in interfacing with existing force structures," Meverden said.
For example, one of the areas that will be scrutinized during MAINEX 10.1, will involve the ability of the Advance Field Artillery Tactical Data System and the Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System, of the Army's current software blocking baseline systems, to provide timely, complete and accurate messages to and from all of the systems involved in the test.
The exercise will also include testing of the Air Forces Advanced Aircraft Network Integration, and net-enabled weapons.
A total of 15 Army LandWarNet/Battle Command software systems will be involved in the exercise, along with two Air Force software systems, and the joint InterTEC tools suite of systems.
More than 30 Army, Air Force and civilian personnel will participate in MAINEX 10.1 at the CTSF.
AGILE Fires MAINEX testing began Jan. 19 with communications checks between the participating event sites. Communications checks and dry runs of test threads ran through Jan. 22.
Primary testing was scheduled to run from Jan. 25 through Jan. 29 at the CTSF and the other AGILE Fires MAINEX sites.
A second similar AGILE Fires test event has been tentatively scheduled for early summer.
"We're honored to be able to provide AGILE Fires with physical and technical support necessary to facilitate the success of the test event," CTSF Acting Director Slade MacTaggart commented at the outset of MAINEX 10.1. "We see this as a step toward enabling a joint, federated, testing concept."
Social Sharing