Photo By Kimberly Menzies | Sgt. 1st Class Gerardo A. Lopez (right to left), Spc. Fransisco Martinez and Spc....... read more read more
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii –Soldiers with the 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command conducted an air and missile defense planning control system training exercise, Nov. 2 to 13, 2015, at Helemano Military Reservation, Hawaii.
The air and missile defense planning control systems (AMDPCS) is a system that facilitates the gathering of air defense feeds from alternate locations, consolidating the information in a tactical operation center for a commander and his staff to have visual and informational situational awareness in order to make informed operational decisions.
The most recent exercise incorporated the same system used by the unit when it conducted training and tested future software in July. However, the current exercise included representatives from the entire staff.
“This exercise was bigger because last time it was mainly two sections conducting specialized training,” said Spc. Christina Williams, an information technology specialist with the 94th AAMDC. “During this exercise, representatives from each of the sections participated.”
The main function of the exercise, Soldier and unit readiness, remained the same.
“The intent of this exercise was to build an expeditionary capability with the AMDPCS equipment,” said Capt. Nathan Pototschnik, the officer in charge of the exercise and an aviation officer with the 94th AAMDC. “It could potentially serve two purposes, tactical, if we were to deploy and set the system up somewhere because we didn’t have hardened facilities to fall in on, or contingency, in the event that a natural disaster happened and we needed to set up our systems on the island.”
The training exercise, which lasted approximately two weeks, included training objectives such as the physical setup of the system, validation of the mission command system, explanation of air defenders’ functions and resources to senior leaders from sister services and proof of systems validation.
“One of the original training objectives was to host distinguished visitors from other services to allow them to see what air defenders do and what tools we have,” shared Pototschnik. “Since they were unable to attend, we ended up briefing our leadership, many of which had not been in this system when fully set up.
“To complete the final training objective, we proved that the systems were validated by providing our commanding general a mission analysis brief on an upcoming exercise from all of our staff positions on the Defense Connect System.”
Like many exercises prior to their conclusion, this training iteration was not without some challenges.
“While setting up the exercise, several computers were found to need additional items installed or updated on them and that is very time consuming,” shared Williams.
“We ran into an issue where the joint network node at Camp Roberts that we were bouncing our satellite requests to was not receiving our request even though things were functioning correctly on our end,” said Pototschnik.
The Sea Dragons were able to overcome the challenges during the AMDPCS training exercise and complete their training objectives with diligence and teamwork.
“There was an all hands on deck type of approach to this exercise,” said Pototschnik. “All the directorates sent out their people, which was huge to getting the system actually set up, and then the signal and communication section had been out at the site working some pretty long hours to ensure that we didn’t fall on our faces out here, definitely kudos to them and the AMDPCS team for the work they put in.”
| Date Taken: | 11.09.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 11.16.2015 21:55 |
| Story ID: | 182101 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 112 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Sea Dragons conduct AMDPCS training at HMR, by Kimberly Menzies, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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