Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Alvarez, a senior telecommunications sergeant and the signal NCO in charge, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, establishes communications from a tactical expandable van during a National Training Center rotation at Fort Irwin, Calif., Sept. 3, 2016. (Photo by Capt. Scott Walters)
By Staff Sgt. Ange Desinor
3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs Office, 4th Infantry Division
Signal Soldiers from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, spent the last six months beefing up a network that will be called upon to stretch communications more than a thousand miles for an upcoming mission.
The upgrades ultimately complement a more mobile brigade with stronger, more efficient and secure data, voice and video transmissions that will allow the “Iron” Brigade to operate in austere environments with limited pre-existing communications technology, said Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Alvarez, a senior telecommunications sergeant and NCO in charge of the 3rd ABCT signal shop.
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Spc. Torey Jones, signal support systems specialist, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, establishes radio communications in Fort Carson’s training area July 7, 2016. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Grady Jones)
“Our primary mission during the past six months was to prepare for the Iron Strike field exercise here at Fort Carson, National Training Center (Fort Irwin, California) and the upcoming mission,” said Alvarez. “We’ve been doing so with a lot of obstacles in our way.”
Prior to the brigade’s National Training Center (NTC) rotation Aug. 22, 2016 to Sept. 11, 2016, the Iron Brigade’s communications Soldiers spent three weeks in the field during Iron Strike, focusing on transitioning from setting up networks for stationary brigade and battalion command posts to providing support for more mobile, expeditionary tactical operation centers (TOC) that frequently jump locations.
“We had to cut down on the amount of equipment and the amount of vehicles. We transitioned from bigger tents to vehicles where we can step on-site, park and set up the network,” said Alvarez. “It’s a way to be more expedient, a more efficient way than the brigade has ever done.”
As the Army moves toward a more modular force, 3rd ABCT is among the first to implement a mobile communication platform. It emphasizes a process designed to swiftly move and assemble the network, communicate, break down and relocate in a short time span, all to keep an adversary guessing where the unit might be.
“The thing about the Signal Corps is you can talk about us, but you can’t talk without us,” said Alvarez. “We are, in all reality, the single point of success or failure when it comes to mission accomplishment. There’s nothing that can be done without us. Everything the brigade does depends on the signal Soldiers’ abilities to accomplish their mission and set the groundwork for them to do anything.”
While FM is the basic radio transmission setup that enables commanders to communicate across the battlefield, one of the signal team’s greatest accomplishments at Iron Strike and NTC was setting up high-frequency (HF) radios, said Spc. Torey Jones, signal systems support specialist for the brigade headquarters.
“When we get to a location to set up a TOC, FMs are the first thing we have to do. But HF has moved its way up on our communications plan,” said Jones. “We have worked diligently to get HF functional. Along with HF, we use (Joint Capabilities Release, the Army’s next-generation friendly force tracking system) and FM. We have set the standard.”
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Signal Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, set up a radio antenna in order to facilitate secure FM radio coverage for the brigade headquarters’ tactical operations center during the Iron Strike field exercise in Fort Carson’s training area July 7, 2016. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Grady Jones)
Alvarez said HF radio still isn’t commonly used by many units, but 3rd ABCT recognized its advantages early in its deployment planning processes.
“It’s a great runway as a communication platform. With great equipment you can literally speed communication across the country or world. My team successfully placed a test call from the back of an information assurance tent at NTC to San Francisco, California,” he said.
Yet the HF isn’t usually a mobile platform, so Alvarez’s team was tasked to create a network they could use efficiently while on the move. His team tested the new platform, which is now the primary means of communication for the brigade, during seven weeks of field exercises since July.
“It took a lot of work, cross-training and going the extra mile to make this work,” he said. “That’s a huge challenge and accomplishment the (combat network radio personnel) on my team have done.”
Staff Sgt. Robert McGrath, multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer for the brigade, has spent long hours in a lead role to upgrade the way the Iron Brigade communicates on the move.
“What led to the early days and late nights was our switch from the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 1 to the End Of Life Technical Refresh, one of four upgrades being made to the Army’s current and future tactical communications network backbone,” said McGrath.
The transition significantly reduces the equipment needed while improving efficiency, security and interoperability of satellite and line-of-sight communications for battalion and above echelons, he noted.
“The difference between us and everyone else is when they go to the field, they get to practice,” said Alvarez. “We cannot operate at 80 or 90 percent, we have to be at 100 percent. If we are down, the brigade fails. The field for us is a real-world mission that will be 24/7, around-the-clock work.”