Editorial: Fund efforts to grow communications capacity

Editorial: Fund efforts to grow communications capacity

Warfare has always been a jigsaw puzzle — all the pieces have to be in the right places for the whole to make any sense.

Sensors, communications, propulsion and armor are interweaving elements, and advances in each allow a stronger whole. Often, however, a singular advance in one area proves dramatic, as was the case when nuclear power was successfully applied to submarines in the 1950s.

Today, the key element in the Army’s premier modernization program, the Future Combat Systems, is the network architecture that will enable the most networked ground force ever. The powerful network, senior officials maintain, will allow 27-ton vehicles to be more effective and safer from enemy fire than 70-ton tanks.

The trouble is that as the FCS’s data and voice networks — its most attractive features — debut over the next decade, there won’t be enough bandwidth even to allow soldiers to train with the full-up system.

To their credit, Army leaders have recognized the problem. They have launched studies on future bandwidth needs and broadcast technologies, and they have changed training programs to prepare troops for a future that may not include as much bandwidth as they expect.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/community/opinion/army_editorial_communications_080121/



uhc comment: Familiarize yourself with the FCS --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Systems