Photo By Capt. Scott Walters | FORT IRWIN, Calif. – Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Alvarez, a senior telecommunications...... read more read more
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Story by Staff Sgt. Ange Desinor
3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs, 4th Infantry Division
FORT CARSON, Colorado – Signal Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, have spent the last half-year beefing up a network that will be called upon to stretch communications over a thousand miles for an upcoming deployment.
The upgrades ultimately complement a more mobile brigade with stronger, more efficient and secure data, voice and video transmissions that will allow the Iron Brigade to operate in austere environments with limited pre-existing communications technology.
“Our primary mission during the past six months was to prepare for the Iron Strike field exercise here at Fort Carson, National Training Center and the upcoming deployment,” said Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Alvarez, a senior telecommunications sergeant and the noncommissioned officer in charge of the 3rd Brigade signal shop. “We’ve been doing so with a lot of obstacles in our way.”
Prior to NTC, the Iron Brigade’s communications Soldiers spent three weeks in the field during Iron Strike focusing on transitioning from setting up networks for stationary brigade and battalion command posts to providing support for more mobile, expeditionary tactical operations centers that frequently jump locations.
“We had to cut down on the amount of equipment and the amount of vehicles. We transitioned from bigger tents to vehicles where we can step on-site, park and set up the network,” said Alvarez. “It’s a way to be more expedient, a more efficient way than the brigade has ever done.”
As the Army move towards a more modular force, 3rd Brigade is among the first to implement a mobile communication platform. It emphasizes a process designed to swiftly move, assemble the network, communicate, break down and relocate in a short time span, all to keep an adversary guessing where the unit might be.
“The thing about the Signal Corps is you can talk about us, but you can’t talk without us,” said Alvarez. “We are in all reality the single point of success or failure when it comes to mission accomplishment. There’s nothing that can be done without us. Everything the brigade does depends on the signal Soldiers’ abilities to accomplish their mission and set the groundwork for them to do anything.”
Spc. Torey Jones, a systems support specialist for the brigade headquarters, recently earned the title of Best Signal Warrior during a division-wide competition. Part of the proficiency he displayed during the contest came from setting up radios and antennas during the brigade’s field exercises over the last three months.
While FM is the basic radio transmission setup that enables commanders to communicate across the battlefield, one of the signal team’s greatest accomplishments at Iron Strike and NTC was setting up high-frequency (HF) radios, Jones said.
“When we get to a location to set up a TOC, FMs are the first thing we have to do. But HF has moved its way up on our communications plan,” said Jones. “We have worked diligently to get HF functional. Along with HF, we use JCR (Joint Capabilities Release, the Army's next-generation friendly force tracking system) and FM. We have set the standard.”
Alvarez said high-frequency radio still isn’t commonly used by many units, but 3rd Brigade recognized its advantages early in its deployment planning processes.
“It’s a great runway as a communication platform. With great equipment you can literally speed communication across the country or world. My team successfully placed a test call from the back of an information assurance tent at NTC to San Francisco, California,” he said.
Yet the HF isn’t usually a mobile platform, so Alvarez’s team was tasked to create a network they could use efficiently while on the move. His team tested the new platform, which is now the primary means of communication for the brigade, during seven weeks’ worth of field exercises since July.
“It took a lot of work, cross-training and going the extra mile to make this work,” said Alvarez. “That’s a huge challenge and accomplishment the (combat network radio personnel) on my team have done.”
The ability to communicate over longer distances will come into play when 3rd Brigade spreads its forces over hundreds and even thousands of miles while deployed in 2017 to an as yet announced location.
Staff Sgt. Robert McGrath, a multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer for the brigade, has spent long hours in a lead role to upgrade the way the Iron Brigade communicates on the move.
“What led to the early days and late nights was our switch from the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 1 to the End Of Life Technical Refresh,” one of four upgrades being made to the Army's current and future tactical communications network backbone, said McGrath.
The transition significantly reduces the equipment needed while improving efficiency, security and interoperability of satellite and line-of-sight communications for battalion and above echelons.
The need to upgrade has been made all the more real for 3rd Brigade signaleers given their upcoming mission abroad.
“The difference between us and everyone else is when they go to the field they get to practice,” said Alvarez. “We cannot operate at 80 or 90 percent, we have to be at 100 percent. If we are down, the brigade fails. The field for us is a real-world mission that will be 24/7, around-the-clock work.”
| Date Taken: | 10.03.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 10.06.2016 14:34 |
| Story ID: | 211455 |
| Location: | FORT CARSON, CO, US |
| Web Views: | 50 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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