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By Scott Prater
Mountaineer staff
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Mobile Satellite Transport Trailers (STT) receive and transmit secure and unsecure voice and data information in field environments. Soldiers with the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, are utilizing the STTs during the unit’s “Switch Ex” exercise outside 4th CAB headquarters at Butts Army Airfield. (Photo by Scott Prater)
FORT CARSON, Colo. — Communications elements of the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, are performing a critical test of their operational capabilities during the next few weeks as part of an exercise known as “Switch Ex.”
In a conglomeration of tents outside the 4th CAB headquarters building at Butts Army Airfield, communications Soldiers are getting experience for working in an austere environment, where equipment and facilities run off of generator power.
“We’re simulating a field (or deployed) environment,” said Warrant Officer Jon Matthews, brigade network technician, 4th CAB. “The idea is to uproot ourselves out of the warm and fuzzy office and get used to working out of tents, because that’s what we’ll be doing for future exercises and deployments.”
During Switch Ex, 4th CAB units will test their command, control, communications, computer, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems and their ability to operate and manage those systems. Perhaps just as important, they’ll also test the mobility and power systems that support C4ISR in a field environment.
“We’re getting used to working off the tactical network and making sure everything is working so that we can put the right pieces in place to complete the (logistical) puzzle and go forth to do great things,” Matthews said.
Operating in a field environment creates a host of issues for C4ISR systems and addressing those in an exercise such as Switch Ex allows Soldiers to replicate conditions in the field. Power is one example. People tend to take a fixed power source for granted when they must rely on power from a generator, which also must drive environmental controls.
“We have to make sure we have all of the cables and connections in the right places,” Matthews said. “We also have to ensure that we can do simple things like log into our systems with our usernames and passwords. Then we must have a fuel plan, (because the portable generators run on fuel), as well.”
C4ISR systems are vital to the 4th CAB mission in the field, as they provide all longer distance secured and unsecured voice and data communications to and from the unit. The 4th CAB relies on mobile satellite receivers known as satellite transport trailers (STT) to perform this task and logistical support is provided by Army Field Support Battalion-Carson logistical assistance representatives.
“During these type of exercises, the unit will follow a script,” said Edward Bryan, AFSBN-Carson deputy commander.
“Unit members will receive operations orders, and they’ll run through their processes.”
In the training exercise, unit members will receive a mission and then execute that mission based on their operating procedures. They’ll test their communications and their ability to disseminate information to different sections that need to react to it.
“The unit’s logistical personnel will performtheir piece, the security personnel will perform their piece, and the intelligence personnel will perform their piece based on the operational orders that come down,” Bryan said. “But that information must come in a digital form and then be pushed out digitally.”
Matthews said 4th Infantry Division personnel will serve as evaluators during the exercise and they not only throw “wrinkles” at the 4th CAB team, but ensure that the communications personnel’s actions will work in a real-world environment.
Matthews said the Switch Ex will run for the next few weeks and that it will serve as practice and preparation for larger exercises that should occur in the near future.