As Program Executive Officer for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, Gary Martin has a lot on his plate: namely, several high-profile communications programs that are in various stages of testing, development, evaluation and fielding.
He’s simultaneously overseeing current and future testing at various levels for the Rifleman radio, the Manpack radio and the third increment of WIN-T, which underwent testing on the Army network this spring at the Network Integration Evaluation 16.1. He’s also in the midst of testing and fielding the En Route Mission Command and Control program, which places fixed satellite antennae on C-17 aircraft, and preparing to test and qualify the expeditionary Transportable Satellite Communications Capability (T2C2) for early-entry operations.
“The vehicles they have today with the WIN-T assets are too big to airlift, so T2C2 provides a very expeditionary, small, portable system that they can bring on a military or commercial aircraft,” Martin told C4ISR & Networks at the AUSA Global Force Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama. “That provides the ability to enable command post operations for early entry.”
Martin also is beginning fielding of the Joint Battle Command Platform, the Army’s next-generation friendly force tracking system, and he’s continuing the efforts of his predecessor, Maj. Gen. Dan Hughes, to simplify the Army network.
“We’ve given a lot of capabilities to soldiers and we continue to do that,” “Nirvana for me would be the soldier turns on [a device] and doesn’t have to do anything but use it. That’s not an easy thing to do.”
