OneWeb Connectivity Products support US Army Capability Set 23

With the US Army in the midst of evaluating Capability Set (CS) 21 of the Integrated Tactical Network (ITN) initiative, senior leadership is already considering incremental upgrades to support the next iteration- CS23.

Today, the army’s 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team is training at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, to evaluate how emerging command, control and communication (C3) technology can significantly extend the connectivity of mounted and dismounted units alike.

Areas of interest include the creation of an initial common operating picture; enhanced and resilient SATCOM; agile cloud computing at the ‘edge’; and improved tactical network transport to support the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS).

Personnel are equipped with a variety of emerging technologies including Android Tactical Assault Kit (ATAK) software displayed on board Samsung Galaxy smartphones to enhance the situation awareness of small unit teams operating at the tactical ‘edge’.

As stipulated by the US Army’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T), ongoing evaluation of CS21 will be directly fed into CS23. Scheduled to begin in FY2023, CS23 aims to increase the “capacity, resiliency and convergence” of the army’s network in a multi-domain operating environment.

CS23 will consider a series of additional technology areas including high capacity Low Earth Orbit and Mid Earth Orbit SATCOM- a capability which will support increasing amounts of data traffic across the battlespace, thereby enabling a more accurate and timely Common Operating Picture.

LEO satellite constellations- such as OneWeb’s global connectivity platform which is due to go live by the end of 2021- will also support the army’s Joint Battle Command-Platform (JBC-P) initiative which is scheduled to replace the legacy Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) solution which has been in service since the late 90s.

Underpinned by faster satellite connectivity, secure data encryption and advanced logistics, JBC-P will provide soldiers with an enhanced situation awareness of the battlefield. This includes the ability to identify friendly, hostile, neutral, unknown and non-combatant parties, using the same ATAK-enabled smartphone evaluated during CS21.

JBC-P will also support the generation and dissemination of orders and electronic casualty reports in addition to route planning.

OneWeb’s family of Flat Panel, Compact-ESA User Terminals provides the ideal solution for the US Army which is seeking to equip up to 140,000 vehicles, aircraft and dismounted personnel with a JBC-P capability.

User Terminals, variants of which are CMOSS (C4ISR/Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards) compliant- are designed with reduced size, weight and power, meaning they can be quickly and easily integrated on board almost any type of platform. OneWeb solutions also meet Department of Defense Cybersecurity Material Model Certification (CMMC) to support information assurance.

Providing army units with <50ms latency; data Throughput up to 195Mbps; and enhanced levels in cyber security, User Terminals can also be networked into a common operating picture to further enhance the situation awareness of the force elements at the edge.

OneWeb’s 648-strong LEO satellite constellation is scheduled achieve Initial Operating Capability in November, providing areas of coverage to North America, The Arctic and Europe. OneWeb will achieve Full Operating Capability by the end of 2022 with coverage extended across the Middle East, North Africa and areas of the Indo-Pacific.