This paper describes the scope and effort that were required in establishing the integrated communication architecture for the lower echelon Army tactical warfighter that needs networked services On-The-Move. One of the lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan was the need for a more robust Beyond-Line-Of-Sight (BLOS) communication capability between the lower Army echelon Land Warriors, Squad Leaders, Platoon Leaders, Company Commanders and the Battalion Commanders. These lower echelon units currently rely on radios that are propagation range constrained to the Line-Of-Sight (LOS) distance between the radios. The tactical communications radios that currently service the lower echelon Army units currently are dominated by Combat Network Radios (CNRs) that are dominated by the Enhanced Position Location Reporting System (EPLRS) and the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS). The BLOS communications capability of the SNE combined with its ability to communicate OTM will help to close the communication gap existing between the various tactical legacy radio networks. This shortfall was identified by a TRADOC study, and need for a low cost Single Integrated Transport System (SITS) was suggested. The basic requirements for providing this lower echelon communications solution include: (1) Interface compatibility requirements with future networking systems (2) Potential for interoperability with higher echelons (3) Baseband compatibility requirements with existing digitized lower echelon units (4) Information Assurance (IA)/Encryption Requirements (5) At-The-Halt (ATH)/On-The-Move (OTM) Capabilities These requirements formed that basis of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Soldier Network Extension (SNE) program.
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