Photo By Sgt. Jacob Suess | U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Dakota Montgomery, fire support noncommissioned officer...... read more read more
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BOLESLAWIEC, Poland – The 1st Armored Division’s Joint Air-Ground Integration Center established communications between the U.S. Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System and the Polish Topaz+ artillery fire control system during the unit’s rotation in support of Atlantic Resolve.
The first successful connection occurred during Combined Resolve 25-02 in Hohenfels, Germany, May 2025, with the Polish 18th Mechanized Division and the team continued to work with additional Polish units to replicate the process through the duration of their time in Eastern Europe.
While this is not the first time the U.S. Army has linked fire support systems with NATO Allies, this is the first time it’s been done with the Polish Topaz+ artillery fire control system.
“Direct connection between U.S. and Polish systems eliminates delays, reduces errors, improves shared situational awareness and enhances safety by lowering the risk of fratricide,” said U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Dakota Montgomery, fire support noncommissioned officer in-charge assigned to the JAGIC, 1st AD.
To enable seamless communication between separate secure digital environments, U.S. and Polish forces established controlled, protected connections that facilitated secure data sharing.
Achieving this level of interoperability required coordinated execution across three critical domains: technical, procedural and human.
This approach aligned standard operating procedures, strengthened multinational relationships and fostered the essential trust needed for successful future missions.
“The three domains of interoperability are all centered on one thing- trust,” said Maj. Matthew Heinsohn, fire support operations officer assigned to the JAGIC. “It takes months of hard work, effort and patience, but you end up with a stronger alliance that trusts each other to be there and win the fights we need to.”
The collective effort and collaboration enabled deep attack planning, which enhanced airspace management for the employment of AH-64 Apache helicopters under the Polish Apache Initiative.
These advancements in interoperable fire support systems within Poland marks progress toward the idea of a NATO-centric framework, capable of safeguarding the nearly 2.3 million square kilometer expanse of NATO’s Eastern flank.
Montgomery continued to explain how digital interoperability with NATO Allies on one network would remove the need to bridge multiple national networks, allowing for seamless target handovers and cross-boundary fires, real-time friendly force tracking, establishment of no-fire areas and distribution of graphics across all fire support systems.
“I see this system evolving by using one NATO air space coordination system integrated with fire control systems,” said Lt. Col. Marek Sieradzki, Missile and Artillery Directorate, Polish General Command. “It is crucial for the NATO Eastern Flank to have the ability for the fire control systems to connect to each other.”
Efforts are ongoing to establish similar links with additional NATO Allied forces to ensure the field artillery systems can connect to all units during future operations.
“What Sgt. 1st Class Montgomery and his team have done in the JAGIC is create a step-by-step process to reach out to these units, establish that relationship and get everyone all moving towards the same goal,” said Heinsohn.
He went on to note that this breakthrough has led the team to ask, “What do we do to make the alliance even more lethal?”
As the 1st Armored Division prepares to redeploy, the 1st AD JAGIC will transition the process to the 3rd Infantry Division staff so they can continue efforts to make prosecution of fire missions across the theater seamless and create conditions to achieve theater-wide opportunities for convergence.
| Date Taken: | 10.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 10.22.2025 09:30 |
| Story ID: | 550135 |
| Location: | BOLESLAWIEC, PL |
| Web Views: | 28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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