Exercise Roving Sands: SMDC Lends Situational Awareness Expertise to Test Common Command Post Concept

摘要

Exercise Roving Sands is a 3-week joint air training exercise involving U.S. and coalition troops and aircraft to practice joint air defense interoperability and incorporate lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom. Allied forces from the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada and Kuwait are participating this year. The exercise focuses on Joint Theater Air and Missile Defense (JTAMD) and Joint Tactical Air Operations while integrating Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps command and control nodes and associated air and missile defense systems. In a nondescript beige building on Fort Bliss -- far away from the action of Exercise Roving Sands 05 -- important work is being done. Taking a live feed from the actual exercise, a team of government and contractor employees are testing an Air and Missile Defense concept that involves two weapons systems: Patriot and Avenger/SLAMRAAMs (Surface Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles). 'We asked the Space and Missile Defense Command to support us in this effort,' said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Odie Huffman, AMD Battle Lab's project officer for the experiment. Inside the Common Command Post, operators sit at computer terminals watching large video displays that are monitoring the skies over the exercise areas, looking for any sign of an incoming threat missile or aircraft. Avenger/SLAMRAAM and Patriot weapon systems stand ready to shoot them down. And that's what the Air Defense Community is looking for -- a common command post that can participate on the battlefield using multiple weapon systems. SMDC provided its Future Operational Capability/Tactical Operations Center II Testbed to support the Common Command Post Joint Experimentation Test and Evaluation Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (CCP JETA ACTD). In its current form, the FOC Testbed permits warfighters to conduct exercises, experiments, and combat operations with an enhanced decision-making capability using a significantly reduced footprint.