Effects of Pushing the Digital Divide to the Fighting Hole

摘要

As society moves from the industrial age to the information age, the importance of sharing accurate and timely information throughout the asymmetric battlespace is becoming increasingly apparent. The current lessons learned from Afghanistan and Iraq have shown that, oftentimes, it is the Platoon Leader, and not the Battalion Commander, who needs the digital communication feed from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) so that a critical tactical decision can be made. However, the communicators that support these modern communication architectures are currently at a disadvantage in providing the services required to support the warfighter because they do not understand the complete architecture or even how the piece they have been trained on fits into the puzzle. In an attempt to facilitate the transformation to net-centric operations, new equipment is being fielded to lower level commands. However, enlisted communicators are still operating based on their experience with specific communications systems currently used within the Marine Corps. To support the next-generation equipment being fielded, digital communications requires a reorganization of the communications military operational specialty (MOS) and the training curriculum afforded to communicators.