The Army is taking a new approach to its tactical network modernization effort, shifting away from two-year capability drops to a more holistic effort that emphasizes flexibility and speed as it shifts to designing for the division as the “unit of action.”
Lead officials detailed the new effort for reporters last Thursday, which will build on modernization efforts to date while working over the next year to experiment and assess capability requirements and recommendations for a baseline design to construct the Army network of 2030.
“In the last 20-plus years, we were brigade-centric…As we move to large scale combat operations, it’s going to require us to do a fundamental shift into the division as the unit of action,” Maj. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of the Network Cross-Functional Team said during the briefing at Fort Myer in Virginia. “What we’ve learned from what’s taken place in the current operations in Ukraine is that…we can’t halt. We need to be on the move. And then [we need to] remove complexity, because those [Brigade Combat Teams] are going to be actually in the fight. We need to move complexity up to the division level.”
Until now, the Army had been working on two year “Capability Sets” to transform its tactical network, with a focus on providing infantry units and dismounted soldiers with new network connectivity equipment, radios, and SATCOM capabilities.
“We all came to the conclusion we needed a better or different approach in order to iterate on getting the equipment into the hands of soldiers a little faster,” Rey said. “We’ve allowed ourselves the opportunity, if something comes up, to inject it, so we can iterate [on the network]. We can bring in something new. We have the capacity do that.”
A slide shown to reporters detailed plans to continue informing baseline network design requirements in the coming months, to include utilizing the recent Balikatan exercise with the Philippines and the upcoming Future Vertical Lift CFT-led EDGE23 experiment, with an aim to conduct an interim design review in July.
Officials will then work to continue experimentation efforts in the lead-up to a critical design review in April 2024, where the Army will officially set the “division as the unit of action” network configuration goal for 2030.
The shift in approach to network modernization will also align with new principles set by Army Futures Command (AFC) Leadership focused around the network’s ability to provide assured voice capabilities, deliver a common operational picture that is data-driven and data-informed and the ability to conduct digital fires, as well as an overall goal to reduce network complexity at brigade and below levels.
“[AFC Commander] Gen. [James] Rainey, as he came onboard, gave us specific shape and guidance as we move to the division as the unit of action,” Rey said.
Initial capability goals for a network focused on the division as the unit of action also include being transport agnostic, such as leveraging Sensitive but Unclassified-Encrypted communications to move data faster, and modernizing on-the-move capabilities for maneuver formations to improve mobility and survivability.
Maj. Gen. Anthony Potts, program executive officer for command, control and communications (tactical), told reporters the Army plans still to hold Technical Exchange Meetings (TEM) with industry about every six months to ensure the service is aware of the latest advancements that could enhance network modernization efforts.
“The underlying process will remain. We’re still going to do the TEMs. We’re still going to do the white papers. We’re still going to be looking for technologies, those emerging technologies that will help enable the capabilities and help enable the architectures that we need to build,” Potts said.