Last Updated: 03/15/2011*

Warfighter Support Services Supports Army’s Return to Full Spectrum Operations Training

Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC’s Warfighter Support Services, in its role as lead for the Warrior Training Alliance under the Warfighter FOCUS program, played a large role in supporting the Army’s first Full Spectrum Operations training in eight years at Fort Polk, La., in October.

When the U.S. Army began a Full Spectrum Operations (FSO) training rotation early in October—for the first time in more than eight years at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC) and Fort Polk, La.—the Warrior Training Alliance (WTA), led by Raytheon Technical Services Company’s Warfighter Support Services, had already been in full-spectrum support mode for the event for several months.

As the prime contractor for operations, maintenance, range and system integration support for live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training  at JRTC and Fort Polk, the WTA provides around-the-clock operations to maintain, connect and sustain network enterprise systems to ensure the appropriate LVC training activities on the 199,000-acre installation and combat training center’s grounds are captured and available to be integrated into After Action Reviews to maximize the event’s training value for the unit.   The return starting this year to FSO training at home station and FSO rotations at all three combat training centers marks the Army’s shift from counterinsurgency operations training, conducted primarily during maneuver CTC mission rehearsal exercises (MRE) for units scheduled to deploy for Operation New Dawn and/or Operation Enduring Freedom missions, to training that involves simultaneously applying offensive, defensive, stability and civil operations for a variety of units.

For the Raytheon-led WTA team at JRTC/Fort Polk, gearing up for the “new” training meant a ramp-up in support and readiness actions for its Army customer to facilitate capturing the dynamic nature of FSO rotational training scenarios. “Over the past several months we’ve been busy preparing for this FSO rotation while simultaneously supporting the standard JRTC MREs for deploying units,” said Fred Pickens, Raytheon site manager.  “We’ve been laying new cables, climbing up towers and sides of buildings to adjust and/or pre-position additional microwave dishes and video cameras, installing and testing software patches, and a host of other activities, to ensure instrumentation system integration connectivity to facilitate robust tracking of the multitude of vehicles, aircraft, personnel and equipment involved in FSO scenarios. We want to do our part to make the Army’s return to rotational FSO as vigorous and realistic as possible to help keep our nation’s warfighters strong, effective and ready as they work to rebuild and preserve their core capabilities while infusing lessons learned and best practices from the most recent past.”

The specific support activities the JRTC WTA team conducted for FSO included:

• Connecting the Intermediate Staging Base (ISB), located 50 miles away at England Airfield, Alexandria, La., to the JRTC – Instrumentation System (JRTC-IS) with an upgraded 10-channel system to enable the tracking of personnel, vehicles and aviation assets, such as Army aviation rotary-wing aircraft staged at the ISB and U.S. Air Force A-10s conducting close air support. Also, as this first FSO rotation’s scenario called for a forced-entry mission with paratroopers jumping from numerous U.S. Air Force C-130 and C-17 aircraft, the newly installed ISB instrumentation allowed for tracking of all air assets throughout the entire airborne operation—from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., to staging at the ISB and enroute between the two locations.
• Ensuring connectivity between JRTC’s virtual and constructive trainer at the Constructive Training Division building to the Maneuver Box ranges to incorporate virtual unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and combined arms live-fire activities into situational training exercise (STX) events.
• Installing the Joint Network Node (JNN) into the JTRC network enterprise to ensure digital communications and connectivity between brigade/battalion command posts and division/HICON (Higher Control) at the JRTC’s Joint Operations Center (JOC).
• Preparing to connect JRTC’s Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF) and Digital Multi-Purpose Battle Area Course (DMPBAC)—the only reconfigurable DMPBAC range in the Army—for possible rotational use by the JRTC Operations Group and out-of-sector missions.
• Establishing digital connectivity at numerous Forward Operating Bases (FOB) for FSO use during STXs, then breaking them down within two days as the FSO scenario moves from STX to force-on-force activities; re-establishing digital communications at all tactical Brigade Command Post locations in the Maneuver Box after the units’ airborne operation; and providing digital connectivity at the Joint Visitor Bureau (JVB) to allow the many high-ranking visitors scheduled to observe the first FSO training access to the video and audio feeds of the training activities.

“You can’t ask for anything better,” said Hector Rivera, Training Analysis Computer Support and Simulations (TACSS) Instrumentation Systems manager for JRTC’s Operations Group. “WTA goes the extra mile to help the soldier, to help the unit.”

“Raytheon is proud to have served the Army at all of its combat training centers and numerous sites around the globe for many years, even before we were named prime on the Warfighter FOCUS contract,” said Mike Edwards, vice president for Warfighter Support Services for RTSC in Orlando and program manager of WTA, which consists of more than 100 subcontractors. “We understand the evolving needs of the military, such as this return to full spectrum operations training, and stand ready to continue to deliver effectively integrated live, simulated and constructive training solutions to our nation’s warfighters so they can continue to tackle the complex challenges of an ever-changing battlefield.”

 

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