Photo By Cpl. Michaela Gregory | U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment and Marine Aviation Weapons and...... read more read more
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Marines with 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, conducted Digital Interoperability (DI) training during the semiannual Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course (WTI) 2-17, at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, March 27.
Lasting seven weeks, WTI is a training evolution hosted by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron (MAWTS) 1 which provides standardized advanced and tactical training and certification of unit instructor qualifications to support Marine aviation training and readiness.
The DI training introduced the Marine Air-Ground Tablet (MAGTAB) to the 2/6 Marines in preparation for their departure with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
The MAGTAB is an interactive device, with easy to use apps which can be used for planning, to replace hard copy paper product plans. With all the MAGTABs linked on one network users can update plans on the go, and the network will update, making the changes available to all the MAGTAB users.
“The whole concept of DI is to tie the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) together,” said Maj. Joseph Fry, rotary wing offensive air support specialists with the aviation development tactics and evaluation department (ADT&E) of MAWTS-1. “The applications on the MAGTAB are by Marines, for Marines. It will provide a more evolved, efficient battlefield with information shared quickly.”
The real-time communication provides planning en route or units using the MAGTAB, enhancing situational awareness in objectives areas.
“As a pilot, I’m flying with my MAGTAB and I look down and see there are Marines on the ground but I can also see their position information on my map because we’re all on the same network,” said Fry. “Everything we do on our mobile devices now, like seeing blue dots on your cellphone for where you are when you navigate, we’re trying to get that same sort of capability to increase situational awareness to ultimately provide a better decision making process for Marines so they know who’s where and when. That’s the bigger picture of what’s going on.”
This collaborative planning enables 20 MAGTAB users to simultaneously connect to a single Wi-Fi node and communicate to digitally plan.
The tablets are effective for ground-to-ground and ground-to-air communication.
“The ground Marines will be able to communicate to the aircraft, and Marines in the back of the aircraft are able to communicate with each other,” said Fry. “The timeline is continuously updating, and all the different applications are working together.”
The 2/6 Marines got hands-on experience with the MAGTAB during WTI and the tablets will be part of their pack for the 26th MEU, but they won’t be the only Marines to use this device for deployments, according to Fry.
“It’s got continuous growth potential so it’ll grow well beyond what we are focused on right now,” said Fry. “We’ve identified some things we like to use it for but the sky is the limit on what it could grow into. The Marine Corps is moving in the direction of mobile device usage in the air, on the ground, in command and control. We’ve seen how wireless technology changes our daily lives, it’s going to change the way we fight too.”
| Date Taken: | 03.29.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 04.06.2017 17:30 |
| Story ID: | 229462 |
| Location: | MARINE CORPS AIR STATION YUMA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 668 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Let’s get digital: 2/6 Marines train with MAGTAB at WTI, by Sgt Harley Robinson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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