The Army has announced that it is equipping its National Guard units in all 54 states with an upgraded communications package capable of keeping commercial Internet and phone services operating during a disaster response, and providing communications interoperability between first responders.
The Army said the new rapidly deployable Disaster Incident Response Emergency Communications Terminal – DIRECT, consists of a Joint Network Node – JNN, with a Satellite Transportable Terminal – STT, provided by each state’s Guard units, and a new advanced capability Delta Package.
In addition to enabling commercial Internet and phone, it provides radio bridging and voice cross-banding, allowing first responders, Guardsmen, and other organizations to communicate with each other using their own radios, according to the Army. It said DETLA also provides 4G LTE/wireless capability for the incident site command post and outlying vicinity, with deployment scheduled from the third quarter fiscal 2015 through fiscal 2020.
