The 332nd Expeditionary Communications Squadron held a unit-wide exercise March 22, 2018, at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.
“The purpose of today’s exercise is to practice deploying the (communication) flyaway kit in case an emergency ever happens,” said 1st Lt. Miles Spetsious, 332nd Expeditionary Communications Squadron flight commander and native of Sarasota, Florida. “That way, if we are ever called to deploy this, we are ready to go.”
“We are making sure we can maintain constant communications when and where it is needed,” added Airman 1st Class Riley Warren, 332nd Expeditionary Communications Squadron cyber transport technician and native of Fort Worth, Texas.
A communication flyaway kit, or CFK, is a network setup that provides immediate communication capability in remote locations through satellite connection.
A 1.2 meter satellite connects to a router, then to an encryptor. From there, the system is connected to devices like computers and phones.
“One of the biggest issues whenever we are setting up our (communication) flyaway kit is maintaining that initial connection; that’s the hard part,” Warren said. “From there, it’s pretty much just plugging in different systems and getting everything up and running, and making sure everything is going smoothly.”
An example of when the CFK is used would be if the base ever lost communication abilities.
“We can use this as a last resort communication capability,” Spetsious said. “You can also forward deploy it in case we need to provide communication solutions in remote locations.”
“It gives us the ability to maintain complete connection with all our coalition partners and everyone else we work with,” Warren added.