Army planning to outfit armored units with network kit in 2025

SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Army is gearing up to begin integrating updated network equipment to armored units in 2025.

The service began experimenting with — and eventually fielding — modernized network gear to light and airborne units roughly five years ago. Those units typically present less of an integration challenge given they don’t use large platforms that are space constrained. This allowed the Army to set a baseline for its network and architecture to continue to build upon with the integrated tactical network (ITN), a combination of program-of-record systems and commercial off-the-shelf tools.

Armored units, however, are much more challenging as they have size, wight and power constraints, requiring carful considerations for how systems plug into them as well as inter-program executive office cooperation with the platform community.

For one tanker, the key is figuring out how to keep pace with the technological change of the commercial sector and integrate that into heavy platforms that historically evolve much more slowly.

“We have integrated a lot of those capabilities within the systems, within these track vehicle platforms, but the problem that we’re running into now is the safety certification for any upgrades or changes that need to happen. That could take a very, very long process and a very expensive process,” Lt. Col. Joe Kaminski, the top network operations officer for 3rd Infantry Division, said at the Army’s Technical Exchange Meeting. “One of the things we’re pushing back up and identifying is how do we decouple, actually, technology that would change transformatively every three to five years on a platform that doesn’t change for 30 to 40 years? And how do we make it more of a bolt-on capability? Now what we’re able to do is integrate and enable that capability but allow for that transformative change to happen. That’s one of the constraints specifically, is integration into the central computer systems.”

Installing radios and equipment requires a long lead time for development and procurement processes. The Army needs to work with units to meet their needs and the needs of their specific platforms because not all tanks or heavy systems are created equal.

“There’s different types of armored vehicles here. Now, what’s the approach, really? Because the things they’re learning in the v3 Abrams, the SWaP, the size, weight and power requirements that that vehicle has, or the capability it’s got, is different from the v2,” Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, director of the command and control cross-functional team, said in an interview. “We don’t want to put something in there. If it’s a full install on the vehicle, what happens is the electrical systems now are dependent on each other and because that tank is heavily reliant on electronics, if you put something in there, it’s got to be fully tested. The conversation we were having was about, what does a bolt-on option look like? Can we do something less than full install? … Is it potentially could be a lower cost, it could be a little bit faster, and you can … move from platform to platform as you need it, as opposed to having to do a full installation?”

He noted that officials will be doing some experimentation on that at the Army’s Project Convergence Capstone 5 event that will take place in March.

Those heavy platforms also have longer lines of communication than other types of units within the Army. Kaminski wants to see the service reimagine those mesh networks.

Moreover, heavy platforms and units operate over large areas and long distances, meaning their forces are more dispersed, creating command-and-control challenges.

“We are more dispersed, also normally with our armor formations, so the dispersion of the CPs [command posts] and the movement of the CPs require network-on-the-move capabilities. When we’re looking at it, we’re looking at pLEO capabilities integration, but how does that then stand and integrate into a track vehicle that a lot of times our personnel don’t dismount, per se, in large quantities? How do I keep that network operational while also maneuvering on there?” he said.

Enabling on-the-move comms

To date, the Army has only fielded about 15 percent of the entire force with the ITN. The plan is to scale two armored units beginning with a brigade in 2025 and then a division in the near future, but that timeline is less clear at the moment.

As it begins to focus on armored units in 2025, the service is kicking off a pilot to test on-the-move communication equipment on armored units in January at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. This initiative follows the first pilot effort in 2022.

The upcoming pilot will include 1st Armored Division. It will feature newer and more mature capabilities from the first instantiation a couple of years ago such as beyond-line-of-sight capabilities, line-of-sight capabilities and variable high antennas.

The pilot and upcoming fielding will also help inform the larger C2 efforts across the Army as well as integration constraints.