The Army is undergoing a transformation of its entire network, with some of the most dramatic changes taking place at the tactical level where previous network capability would not pass muster in highly contested electromagnetic spectrums against potential near-peer adversaries\u2019 capabilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maj. Gen. David Bassett recently took over Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T) after serving many years as the officer in charge of PEO Ground Combat Systems. He knows his way around acquisition and how to rapidly integrate capability onto platforms, most recently fielding Stryker combat vehicles with new 30mm cannons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bassett\u2019s experience will transfer to PEO C3T as he looks to integrate effective network systems into tactical formations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher is tackling the network from a modernization perspective, having taken on a new job to find ways to rapidly bring better network capability into the force. He serves as one of the cross-functional team leaders working under the Army\u2019s new Futures Command. Each CFT lead is tackling one of the service\u2019s top six modernization priorities \u2014 the network is its fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n C4ISRNET\u2019s Jen Judson caught up with both leaders in March at the Association of the U.S. Army\u2019s Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, to discuss how they are working together to bring about a more robust, survivable and functional network to the force now and in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n C4ISRNET:<\/i><\/b> I want to talk about the role of the cross-functional team, the network, as well as the role of PEO C3T in looking at the network. How do you work together to develop and acquire what the Army needs for the network?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n GALLAGHER:<\/b><\/i> The name of it is cross-functional, so we have elements of the acquisition community. Dave actually has core members on my team. I have members on the team from the requirements community, from the operational community. The team is relatively small. About 30 folks make up the core team and, really, it\u2019s about focused integration and disciplined innovation. We\u2019re not trying to do anything around the PEOs or the requirements community. We\u2019re working by, with, and through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BASSETT:<\/i><\/b> Acquisition has always been kind of the ultimate team sport and now we\u2019ve got some empowered teammates. PMs and PEOs are still going to execute programs. The CFT really defines the \u201cwhat\u201d of where we\u2019re going to go modernize and really brings their stakeholders together. We bring the \u201chow,\u201d the acquisition experience about how to get it done both within the system and then bending that system to the collective will to make it go faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GALLAGHER:<\/i><\/b> The network is big and there is a lot involved in modernizing the network. What we\u2019re focused on is the war fighting aspect of the network. What can we do collectively \u2014 between what Gen. Bassett and his team are doing and what Gen. Potts and his team are doing at PEO-Soldier \u2014 to really integrate this tactical network and give our war fighters the best solutions they can to fight and win our nation\u2019s wars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n C4ISRNET:<\/b> <\/i>What are some of your near-term modernization efforts?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n GALLAGHER:<\/b> <\/i>We\u2019re looking at leveraging solutions that are already out there, that maybe our joint and special operations teammates are using to integrate the advanced networking waveforms in our radio systems. We\u2019re looking at redefining our security boundaries in our network to give our users at the tactical edge more options to get the message through. We\u2019re looking at capitalizing on existing infrastructure and a host nation and then bringing scalable solutions that we need to give us maximum flexibility on the battlefield. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Working with Gen. Bassett and his team, we\u2019re looking at what are our radio vendors going to provide us with our next-generation radios. How do we leverage radio gateways that will allow us to cross-connect different radios with mission partners? How do we leverage cross-domain solutions as we adjust the security boundaries through that upper tactical internet and our lower tactical internet to give us maximum flexibility? <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re also looking at leveraging the tactical data links that enable our Air Force and access to close air support and things like that to give us better capability for joint fires. We\u2019re trying to treat the network more as an ecosystem where everything\u2019s interconnected and leveraging software translation tools and hardware gateways that give us maximum flexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BASSETT:<\/b> <\/i>As the secretary and the undersecretary both pointed out, we have to be able to both fight tonight as well as modernize for the future. Some of the investments we\u2019re making right now enhance our ability to fight tonight. Some of the new equipment that the CFT has helped us bring to bear in the security force assistance brigades. As we evolve some of these, they\u2019re all really interconnected. And, so, the things that we do with the transport layer have to pass all the data that we do in our applications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re looking at those same advanced radios as we look at those two things together to evolve them. We\u2019re also looking at how we converge our mission command systems onto a common framework so that we can get rid of those mission command stovepipes and reduce the footprint that is necessary in our fielded headquarters so that the users don\u2019t have that much to move, that we streamline that process, make training easier and make them operate better with a single common operational picture. Some of those things that are near-term we\u2019re doing through the CFT. Some of those things are longer term we\u2019re doing through the program of record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n C4ISRNET:<\/i><\/b> What\u2019s next for exercises in the coming year? What\u2019s important to focus on right now?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n GALLAGHER:<\/i><\/b> We\u2019ve got a combination of exercises and other sources of information. So, as Dave mentioned, the security force assistance brigades are being filled. Some of it\u2019s nontraditional. We\u2019re going to learn from their deployments and their feedback. And we\u2019ve also got a couple excursions going on in Europe where the 173rd and 2nd [Cavalry Regiment] has been fielded some capabilities as part of an operational needs statement that\u2019s similar to what we\u2019ve been testing with one of the battalions out of the 82nd Airborne Division. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, we just finished a two-week exercise down at Fort AP Hill in Virginia. It was a combination of PEO Soldier, PEO C3T, our partners from the 82nd, but we also had an assessment team combined from Army Test and Evaluation command. We had some members from the Joint Staff, from TRADOC Center for Army Lessons Learned to really determine capabilities limitations and, as we go forward, what we\u2019re really focused on is how will this scale. How will this scale to an entire brigade and will it work in a variety of different types of formations? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the next 18 months we\u2019re looking at an Infantry Brigade Combat Team scalability exercises. We\u2019re looking at the installation and characterization of this type of equipment in both Stryker brigades and armor brigade combat teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What we\u2019re really trying to define is whether this capability works in a multitude of formations. Is it scalable for a campaign army in the fight? And then we\u2019re trying to leverage the experimentation and demonstration to make some recommendations to Army senior leaders about what it\u2019s going to take to define the capabilities set. What\u2019s the basis of issue? And we want to make sure it\u2019s not this one-size-fits-all solution that carries us through the next 30 years. We want to make sure it\u2019s open architecture and we can plug and play the solutions as we go forward. But they remain interoperable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n C4ISRNET:<\/b> <\/i>What role will experimentation play as you build the network?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n BASSETT:<\/b> <\/i>I think it\u2019s sometimes talked about like it\u2019s a change. We know that we don\u2019t start out with a perfect requirement. The cooperation that we\u2019re getting now really shows that we can do some experimentation, refine what the requirement really ought to be to make sure that we\u2019re hitting close to the mark. Having an empowered CFT in place, that\u2019s really got the ear of the Army senior leaders and really, it\u2019s connected back to the soldiers in the field who\u2019s giving us the competence to move forward with those acquisition programs with a great deal of confidence so that what we know we\u2019re fielding is going to be well-received. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s entirely new, but it\u2019s something that we\u2019re certainly doubling down on right now as we look at what\u2019s next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GALLAGHER:<\/b> <\/i>I do think what is new, though, is the focused leadership from the Army\u2019s senior leadership to really get us working as a collective team with speed and precision on the most pressing modernization priorities. And, so, this team-of-team approach that we\u2019re taking on. The partnership with C3T has been phenomenal from the start. You know they\u2019ve offered up space at Aberdeen for a portion of our team to work. Members of Dave\u2019s team are on my team and we are given way together to try to really accelerate capabilities, the best possible capabilities, in getting those in the hands of our soldiers as quickly as we can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maj. Gen. David Bassett, PEO C3T, and Maj. Gen. Peter Gallagher, Futures Command, discuss bringing a more robust, survivable and functional network in highly contested spectrums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":32323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":20,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,29,32,20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3286],"class_list":["post-31200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-home","category-newsletters","category-thought-leadership"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DSS7I4MG2RFENCOFMYMJKAK3BE","arc_canonical_url":"\/thought-leadership\/2018\/05\/11\/how-army-leaders-are-tackling-network-transformation\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n