The Army is deploying tactical network and mission command capabilities to West Africa in support of Operation United Assistance, launched to contain the Ebola outbreak there before it’s beyond control.
One of the challenges facing the mission is a lack of communications infrastructure in Liberia and elsewhere needed for disaster response operations. In this case the Army is putting in place infrastructure to help communications between US Africa Command, deploying units, NGOs and other partners.
On October 16 the Army said it turned on Blue Force Tracking, known as BFT, satellite coverage over the region, enabling real-time messaging and location status information for vehicles and individuals. A follow-on step is the arrival of WIN-T systems that will serve as the backbone communications infrastructure for the task force headquarters, run by the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
The Army said its “surge” in tactical communications exemplifies its goals for its information network going forward – being scalable and flexible based on changing mission.
More broadly, the Army is continuing to work toward being able to field modernized network capabilities across formations, making a common operating environment ubiquitous across devices and contexts, simplifying and protecting the network and creating smaller and lighter command posts for rapid deployment.
For the Ebola mission it will be critical maintain a common operating picture, and it’s a good example of why the Army network must be flexible and scalable to support a globally responsive force that can adapt based on mission, region, partners, and other operational conditions, the Army said.
