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Cutting-edge
technologies for both land and air missions were viewed at Fort Dix
Tuesday at the C4ISR On-the-Move Event 08, culminating four months of
high-tech testing.
C4ISR stands for Command, Control, Communication, Computers,
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, and that organization
began the testing in April in collaboration with industry partners and
the Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering
Center , or CERDEC, headquartered at Fort Monmouth, N.J. Technicians
from the labs rolled onto Range 1 at Dix this week to demonstrate
technologies supporting future force capabilities.
The systems displayed are still under assessment, C4ISR officials said,
adding that initial results of the four-month test will be published in
November.
The exercise tested or assessed more than 100 systems. Those systems
were augmented with virtual and constructive entities to represent the
network that the Army will field in the future, said Lt. Col. William
Utroska, product manager for C4ISR OTM.
After the final assessments are completed, the product is then put into
a “System of Systems,” Utroska said. SoS is explained as “a structure
of one entity working into a collaborative entity.”
C4ISR OTM conducts live events along with simulations to expand the
number of systems and speed military development as part of the
testing, officials explained.
The testing included emerging technologies such as the Boeing A160T
Humming Bird unmanned aerial system to help Soldiers on the ground
communicate with each other.
Another emerging technology created for Soldiers out in the field was
the Digital Alert Display, a computer that wraps around the Soldier’s
forearm. It allows Soldiers to communicate with each other via text
messaging, while still being silent, motionless and keeping a grasp
on their weapon.
The exercise allowed Soldiers to use the Digital Alert Display
technology and provide commentary and an assessment of the equipment,
which had both positive and negative aspects. The light weight of the
product and the ability to communicate in a modern, well-known method
was part of the positive feedback. The amount of time it took for
transmission, however, was a negative feedback that Soldiers did not
anticipate.
This kind of feedback, both positive and negative, is the type of
information Utroska said his team is looking for. His motto is “Success is success and failure is success.”
“If the Army makes a decision in technology, and then it does not
appear as promising as we had originally thought, it is more beneficial
to use that information as a map -- a path not to go down. We find out
what is wrong and that helps us find out what is right,” Utroska said.
Utroska also said that Fort Dix is a huge partner in supporting the
transformation of the Army. The strong partnership Fort Dix has
with PM C4ISR OTM, he said, allows cutting-edge military technology to move forward with fewer detours.
Source and credits : http://www.army.mil/-news/2008/08/08/11538-army-displays-100-technologies-at-end-of-4-month-test/
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