Heavy Rain 23: Testing the SNN in a Contested Environment

Photo By Candy C Knight | GROTESQUIN, FRANCE — U.S. Army Soldiers from the 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion Enhanced monitors and reports electronic warfare issues during Exercise Heavy Rain in Grotesquin, France November 9, 2023. Exercise Heavy Rain was a premier contested communication exercise held in France that created a realistic combat training environment conducted with five countries. The 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion Enhanced, 2d Theater Signal Brigade, is the premiere Expeditionary Signal Battalion, capable of supporting any unit, anywhere in the world with communications. (U.S. Army photo)  

GROTESQUIN , FRANCE

12.11.2023

Courtesy Story

2d Theater Signal Brigade

GROTESQUIN, FRANCE — How do you know if your equipment can operate in an austere environment?

Simple answer: You test it.

The 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion Enhanced did exactly that during its most recent exercise, Heavy Rain 2023, deploying three Scalable Network Nodes to Grotesquin, France November 7 to 17, 2023, to evaluate the SNNs’ performance in a contested environment with various Modification Table of Organizational Equipment augmentations.

The Soldiers demonstrated the unit’s ability to succeed in this environment by integrating joint, alliance, and host nation capabilities with the Upper TI network. The test also allowed the teams to learn which MTOE augmenting equipment would best improve the performance of the SNN.

Each of the three SNN teams was provided different equipment to accomplish this mission. The first team kept only their organic SNN equipment, thus becoming the control group. The second team was completely refitted with both a RDN and a Panther II satellite. The third team had a mixture of both organic SNN equipment and a Panther II satellite.

USAF Airmen and 44th ESB-E Soldiers worked together to not only get these systems working but to test their robustness. From jamming to system failures, the Air Force provided realistic scenarios for the Soldiers to adapt to. This tested both the Soldiers’ ability to respond, as well as the overall capabilities of the equipment. A major focus of the exercise was the Soldiers’ ability to use spectrum analyzers to identify enemy electronic warfare (EW) operations.

The teams provided positive feedback on the augmentations. Particularly, numerous Soldiers commented on the speed of the Panther II over the SNN Hawkeye satellite.

“The Panther II System worked extraordinarily well,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Henry Harris SNN 450 team chief, 44th Expeditionary Signal Battalion Enhanced. “Since it relies on commercial satellites, it was far more difficult to jam it. Additionally, you don't have to worry about another entity like the RHN to utilize it. This saved us hours of time and troubleshooting.”

The 44th ESB-E teams discovered that speed and flexibility of the Panther II to be superior to the Hawkeye. Both teams with the Panther II outperformed the SNN control group in speed and performance. The teams also identified shortfalls in their current equipment that need addressing as this will increase their versatility on the battlefield.

Heavy Rain 23 was a successful exercise instrumental in learning more about how the 44th ESB-E can improve to become a more lethal fighting force.

• Date Taken: 12.11.2023
• Date Posted: 12.14.2023 23:50
• Story ID: 460017
• Location: GROTESQUIN , FR