Army CIO sees networks as all about the data

Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, the Army's newly appointed chief information officer, views the primary goal of the service's global network in simple terms with broad goals: make data available to soldiers anywhere, anytime.

In a presentation delivered on March 31 to senior Army and uniformed civilian leaders, Lawrence said the planned single, secure, global Army enterprise network "is all about data availability."

To meet this goal, she said, the Army has to abandon old practices such as multiple contracts for information technology services that outfit every installation with hardware maintenance, software licenses and help desks. The Army, Lawrence added, can no longer afford to have everyone stand up their own network.

These past expensive and duplicative practices, she said, will be replaced by a "one Army network approach" that achieves enterprise efficiencies while maintaining effectiveness with "dramatically improved network defense."

The service should take an incremental approach to network modernization, buying less gear more often. New equipment purchase and fielding also should align with the Army force generation cycle to ensure that units are deployed to combat zones with the newest systems.

The Army plans to put the tactical systems that support deployed forces through a series of tests at Fort Bliss, Texas, and at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, starting this summer and running through November 2013. Lawrence described these tests as the service's "centerpiece for integrated network evaluations."

The Fort Bliss-based Brigade Modernization Command will run these tests, which command spokesman Paul Mahoney described as the largest operational test the service has conducted. He said 4,000 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division will participate in tests that will span both the 1,700- square-mile Fort Bliss and the adjacent 3,20- square mile White Sands Missile Range, the Army's two largest installations.

Mahoney said the Army plans to test the following systems during the Network Integration Evaluation exercise this year:

- New software designed to increased bandwidth for the Force Battle Command Brigade and Below system, which tracks hostile and friendly forces on the battlefield;

- The vehicle-mounted version of the Joint Tactical Radio System Ground Mobile Radio;

- The JTRS Handheld Man pack Small Form Fit Radio carried by foot soldiers;

- The SPIDER network controlled munitions system ; and

- An advanced vehicle intercom system that includes a head-mounted display for crew members.

Mehney said the final two out of six weeks of the exercises will be a full-bore test of the Army battlefield tactical networks throughout much of White Sands, including systems such as the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, which provides communications down to the battalion level, aerostats and unmanned air vehicles to relay radio signals.

These tests will stress the network that Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli has described as the service's top modernization priority. "Having every soldier plugged into the tactical network and giving them means to access and distribute information would give the Army a tremendous advantage [over our adversaries]," Chiarelli told the Army News Service.