By Ann Roosevelt
Boeing [BA] and SAIC [SAI], the Lead Systems Integrator (LSI) for the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, yesterday said the program took a critical step toward integrating critical technologies to the current force with success in its role in the Air Force-led Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2008 (JEFX 08).
FCS had several objectives including joint/multinational interoperability, expanding network nodes to include ground and airborne sensors and to conduct joint network fires.
“In all cases we were able to meet or beat our objectives,” Craig Brown, Boeing FCS LSI experiment lead, said in a briefing.
“JEFX 08 provided an assessment that informs the FCS program of accomplishments and issues in mitigating both program and technical risk,” he said. “FCS system and network maturity were validated, and we were able to demonstrate the tremendous leap in capabilities that FCS will provide compared with the current force.”
JEFX is conducted every two years at military facilities across the country. It is a multinational, multi-service military experiment intended to accelerate the research, development and fielding of new combat systems. The four-part experiment culminated in April with a field demonstration designed to test full joint connectivity and situational awareness in an operational setting.
The FCS JEFX 08 initiative focused on improving network integration–terrestrial, air and space–and joint interoperability.
The joint exercise provided one of the first opportunities to test the functionality and applicability of FCS technologies designed for the first spin out of capabilities to the current force in 2008. It also tested the maturity of network systems in a realistic environment.
A major FCS success was shared situational awareness and the ability to call for joint network fires to engage a target that FCS sensors acquired in real- and near real-time, spanning the joint and coalition tactical, operational and strategic operating picture.
FCS sensors included the Textron [TXT] Tactical-unattended ground sensor, and the Honeywell [HON] Class 1 electro-optical sensor on an unmanned aerial vehicle.
FCS must interoperate with current force systems, and the AH-64 Apache helicopter’s modernized target acquisition designation system (MTADS) sensor was also utilized. Apache is not part of FCS, but is a complementary system to it and must interoperate with FCS.
Additionally work with the data links between Apache and unmanned aerial systems worked well.
“This went so well we’re rethinking,” Doug Miyashiro, Boeing FCS Experiment Chief Engineer said. Apache might push forward more quickly in this area, though that is not yet determined.
FCS continues to expand its capabilities with more program prototypes, and fewer surrogates, and builds on FCS JEFX initiatives in 2004 and 2006.
In JEFX 04, FCS participated with one piece of technology–the System of Systems Common Operating Environment (SOSCOE).
FCS expanded its participation significantly in JEFX 06, using surrogate command and control vehicles equipped with SOSCOE, battle command software, prototype Unattended Ground Sensors, and pre-engineering development model Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) radios to conduct terrestrial network integration and interoperability experimentation.
In JEFX 08, FCS deployed its most mature SOSCOE and Battle Command software to date, more mature JTRS radios and early prototype Warfighter Information Network-Tactical radios, and utilized FCS prototype hardware and complementary systems to demonstrate improved network integration, assured connectivity and joint and coalition interoperability among other capabilities.