Pushing today’s network across the environment is not unlike when our nation first deployed electricity and other utilities. Before we began to see economies of scale and a return on investment, we first had to install the power lines and electrical wiring. It was expensive, especially when the country started bringing electricity out to the farm—where there was no infrastructure.
Recall the early phase of the war in Afghanistan when a Special Forces soldier was on horseback, using radios to direct close air support and bomber strikes, sometimes from halfway around the world.
Getting the network to Special Forces troops operating in remote areas is the same as it was getting electricity out to the farm.
The faster and sooner we invest in the network—for data-capable radios, joint network nodes or conversion to IP—the more quickly we’ll see ROI.
Recently, I testified to Congress about the Army’s IT budget and talked about how today’s investments in the network are starting to yield efficiencies. The Blue Force Tracking System proved so successful in the initial stages of Afghanistan and Iraq that the Army is fielding it to additional units. BFT is directly responsible for significant reductions in vehicle-to-vehicle fratricide. It allowed the Third Infantry Division to fight through darkness and sandstorms on its way to Baghdad. Pilots said they would have been forced to land in hostile territory without it. The Army’s original procurement objective was 15,000 BFT systems. It’s currently at 57,000.
“The faster and sooner we invest in the network, the more quickly we’ll see ROI.”
The Army is working arm-in-arm with its sister services to develop the network elements of the Global Information Grid. As a community, we have migrated from proprietary Cold War standards to readily available and less expensive commercial standards and Web technologies. We are currently deploying that technology across the Army.
The Installation Information Infrastructure Modernization Program (I3MP) extends the GIG to the last tactical mile on our posts, camps and stations, upgrading vintage communications to current standards. It provides network protection and a secure network-centric environment to forces around the world.
The Army is replacing its legacy 30-year-old mobile subscriber equipment (MSE) with IP-based joint network nodes. The JNNs provide high-bandwidth satellite links down to the battalion level; MSE only provided bandwidth to brigades.
With Congress’ help, and using nontraditional acquisition strategies, the Army funded the first JNN in March 2004, equipped the Third Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., that August and deployed nodes to Iraq just three months later.
That’s nine months from funding to deployment. We accomplished in months what historically had taken years, sometimes decades.
Currently, we’ve deployed JNNs in four divisions and will have them at seven of the Army’s 10 divisions by October. We will have completed seven divisions in 33 months. The JNN rollout has been a huge success—validated in combat. A single JNN hub can support more than 70 brigade and battalion command posts.
This should be a lesson to those who make resource decisions. The initial cost of deploying the network is expensive, but we will see significant returns on investment if we push the network to the lowest level. The sooner we make the investments, the sooner we’ll be able to leverage the network’s tremendous power.
Lt. Gen. Steven W. Boutelle is CIO for the Army.
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