Photo By Staff Sgt. Cody Harding | A model of the Mission Command Augmented Support cell, where enablers can be added to...... read more read more
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Story by CW2 Ronnie Eriksson
In a distributed mission command (DMC) environment, redundant means of communication is an ever-increasing necessity. Compound this with the continual threats of denial of service attacks against our satellite assets; thus, the need for redundant and reliable communications platforms increases further. With the advent of recent technological and innovative progress across DoD, I believe there is a cost effective solution available by leveraging this new wave of innovation on one of our older and more reliable communication platforms.
Loved by many, especially in the combat arms realm, for its ease of operation and reliability, the Communications Control Set: AN/PSC-15 Global Rapid Response and Information Package (GRRIP) has been around for a while. In 2013, I was the G6 NCOIC for the 10th Mountain Division Assault Command Post (ACP). The GRRIP was a good piece of equipment to have in the tool kit, but operated only on a Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) antenna capable of, at most, latent and expensive secure voice over IP (SVOIP) and data. One could forget about placing a CPOF, VTC or similar bandwidth intensive client device on it. As such, the GRRIP was relegated for use by the security force teams or used as a tertiary, if at all, means of communication within smaller command posts.
Soldiers use the GRRIP in the Expeditionary Command Post
In May of 2017, I received a GRRIP user survey stating that the GRRIP program and the supporting Secure Network Operations Center (S- NOC) were scheduled for termination once all T2C2 Lite terminals had been fielded. At the time, the GRRIP systems were deployed and feedback on them was mixed. Thinking back to my time with 10th Mountain and the bandwidth limitations of the system, I chose the T2C2 system on the survey and moved on.
Consequently, one month later a new capability was available for use with the GRRIP system. This capability was the Mobile Broadband Kit (MBK) which had a Cradlepoint built Integrated Broadband Router (IBR1100). I jumped on this opportunity and sent word to the S-NOC that we wanted the components ASAP. I then notified G6 requesting four M2M SIM cards from our cellular provider. I received four AT&T Air Cards in September of 2017 and immediately began using the system with promising results.
Mobile Broadband Kit (MBK)
Jump forward one year to October 2018. I had been in contact with Rich Movelle, the Team Lead for PM TN SATCOM NOC to get Tactical Mission command services pushed over the GRRIP in order to facilitate the BCT's newly-designed distributed mission command philosophy. This new concept hinged on the ability to provide redundant means of upper tactical internet (UTI) to key command post nodes. Hanging Battle Command Common Services (BCCS) clients off the GRRIP and pointing them to our Mission Command Augmentation Support (MCAS) sanctuary location would be a game changer for us.
Mission Command Augmentation Support (MCAS)
As we were working in the ports protocols and services (PPS) request for the BCCS services, Rich mentioned that they were working with Paul Crabill, NTC Lead, and his team to bring the Global Agile Integrated Transport (GAIT) network to the SNOC. Having had our BCCS servers connected to GAIT as part of our MCAS setup for a few months now, I immediately emailed Paul and explained that we were ready to test. Living up to its "Agile" name, the GAIT configurations were added to the Fort Dix SNOC, Camp Roberts RHN, and the 101st Tactical Hub Node, and were tested two days later.
CONCLUSION
As the Department of Defense and the Army looks for its units to become more agile and survivable, the Soldiers at the ‘tip of the spear’ need to continue to innovate and give our commanders multiple options in order to effectively and reliably conduct mission command. The GRRIP Program of Record is a proven and reliable communications package with a solid support infrastructure and increasing capabilities set. The Army must consider keeping this asset available.
| Date Taken: | 11.20.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 01.12.2019 11:41 |
| Story ID: | 306368 |
| Location: | FORT CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 149 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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