The US Army has been immersed in an ambitious network integration evaluation (NIE) exercise at White Sands, designed to simultaneously test programmes of record and assess a host of emerging network technologies.

The NIE is a key part of the US Army’s network strategy and includes five programmes of record going through formal limited user tests, as well as a host of other technologies. The evaluation began to assess the scope and readiness of these emerging technologies the first week of June and runs through mid July.

At the heart of the exercise is an overarching effort to develop a single battlefield network able to push key information to the soldier, linking them to command posts, vehicles on-the-move and higher headquarters. The idea is to use the best available technologies to move information, voice, video, data and images faster, further and more efficiently across the force.

“The network will literally redefine how we fight,” said Vice Chief of Staff of the Army General Peter W. Chiarelli. “Ultimately, the network will connect leaders, soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines at all levels, at every echelon of command, in any formation, and across the entire team, with the right information quickly and seamlessly. I am confident it will make our various formations more lethal, faster, and more survivable in today’s battlefield.”

Central to the NIE is the continued evaluation of non-proprietary high bandwidth waveforms such as soldier radio waveform, or SRW, and wideband networking waveform. These use a larger portion of the available spectrum than legacy waveforms to move voice, video, images and data in real-time across multiple nodes in the force.

The waveforms, and indeed many of the technologies, are designed with standards aimed at meeting the needs of all the services in order to accommodate the potential for joint service involvement in the network.

“We’re working very closely with partners at office of the Secretary of Defense in laying this out,” Chiarelli said. “I’ve invited them all [other Services] out to see what we’re doing. I see this evolving very quickly into a test-bed that can be used not just by the Army but by all services.”