JTIEC provides an entry point for Team Orlando customers.
Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, or NAWCTSD
Perhaps one of the most significant demonstrations of communications failure among disparate teams was the emergency operations during Hurricane Katrina in 2005. As an observer, the communications failures were easy to pinpoint and the world was left with the understanding that communications is a key to successful execution of even the most complicated and intricate operations. The U.S. military has similar communications requirements as they strive to connect leaders on the battlefield; both within a military service and between military services when conducting joint training or joint operations.
The communications networks and equipment used in today's military operational and training environments vary from organization to organization. This presents a real problem when warfighters come together for joint operations and training exercises. In early 2008, Lance Legan, Technical Lead in the Concept Development and Integration Laboratory, at the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD), put a research team to work on developing a bridge that would translate the various systems to ensure all the players had clear communications during the joint training and operations.
The project, called Operations Center Live to Virtual Communications Bridge was commissioned by the Joint Training, Integration and Education Center (JTIEC), and the success of the program is directly correlated to Team Orlando and its partners. Kent Gritton, Director of JTIEC, identified this project as "an essential enabler for the military services to share communications between the live and virtual environments among the various services, and a key element to success in training our warfighters in a joint environment." He stated that "this project is an example of the benefits of the collaboration that exists between the military services in Orlando. As a result of this project, both the Army and the Marine Corps will reap significant benefits from technology developed in a Navy laboratory – all within the University of Central Florida Research Park.." The immediate beneficiaries of this project are the Army's Combat Training Center Objective Instrumentation System in PEO STRI's Project Manager for Training Devices and the Marine Corps' Combined Arms Staff Trainer (CAST) managed by the Program Manager for Training Systems (PM TRASYS).
At a recent project demonstration in the Navy Lab, Legan explained the program and demonstrated its functionality by using actual Marine Corps and Army equipment and radios. "The system," he said, "is breakthrough research technology that will allow these systems to transmit and receive information in real time allowing users on either end to understand the communications through their own equipment. This technology will help bring our communications within the modeling and simulation world together and result in better joint training, just as our military operates in the real environment."
The program provides the capability for bridging operations center systems with modeling and simulation networks. By leveraging existing technology that was developed by the Navy team, the Live to Virtual interface was developed and tested. The bridge can be used with current and future operations centers that support bridging methodology. Tested on the Joint Network Node, the resulting software is government owned and available to any Department of Defense program. This has the potential of tremendous government savings on future programs.
The bridge implements and validates interoperability standards between the Army's Tactical Operations Center and the Marine Corps' Command Operations Centers, which use dissimilar software and communications systems within their operations centers. The project outcome includes not only a successful, tested software for bridging live to virtual communications, but also includes test reports and interoperability standards in the Operations Center Communications Interoperability Using Modeling and Simulation Protocols document.
The Operations Center Live to Virtual Communications Bridge (VTB) program is likely to expand as more program managers and technologists learn of its capabilities to bridge the communications gap between operations centers. As the Army's Combat Training Center Objective Instrumentation System and Marine Corps Combined Arms Command and Control Training Upgrade System continue to operate together in the training environment, the attributes of Communications Bridge will become more prominent and ultimately enhance human performance and enrich the joint training environment. As the VTB program expands, so will the collaboration that leads to more effective and more efficient training across and between the military Services.
PR Contact: Mary Trier, 407-620-3357; Mary.Trier@capitalcommunications.biz
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