21 Jul 17. New Mission Command Fosters More Agile, Lethal Army. During a recent Joint Forcible Entry training exercise, the Army’s Global Response Force successfully used En Route Mission Command to enable real-time joint intelligence, communications and collaboration capabilities as they flew cross country to battle simulated enemy forces.
EMC delivers critical in-flight mission command, plane-to-plane and plane-to-ground network communications and situational awareness onboard the aircraft, so commanders can continue planning en route and their paratroopers are well prepared to jump into potentially hostile territory.
“EMC provides commanders with an enhanced degree of flexibility to be able to plan, adjust and communicate with all the departments that interoperate [in a JFE mission],” said Army Lt. Col. Lee Adams, commander for the 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 35th Signal Brigade, XVIII Airborne Corps, which supports the GRF with EMC.
Providing ‘Right Level of Combat Power at the Right Place’
With EMC, “they can plan and have an enhanced situational awareness all the way up to the objective, so they can have the right level of combat power at the right place at the right time,” Adams explained.
The GRF of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and XVIII Airborne Corps is required to rapidly respond to any threat worldwide with little or no notice. EMC leverages technologies similar to those used by today’s commercial airlines to provide in-flight network access, enabling the GRF to access secure and reliable voice, video and data communications provided by the Army’s Tactical Network while onboard an Air Force C-17 aircraft.
EMC also enables mission command capabilities, such as Command Post of the Future, which provides a common operational picture and collaboration capabilities. Another capability is the Joint Automated Deep Operations Coordination System, a unified targeting solution that coordinates joint and coalition fires.
The 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion soldiers operating EMC can also extend the same en route communications, enhanced situational awareness and planning capabilities to other aircraft that are flying out to the mission, so that all forces are synchronized.
“EMC provides an expeditionary command post capability in flight, so the GRF can retain the same level of situational awareness and collaborative communications they have on the ground, in the air, without skipping a beat,” said Lt. Col. Mark Henderson, product manager for Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment 1, which manages EMC for the Army. WIN-T itself is assigned to the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications-Tactical, also known as PEO C3T.
“EMC will enable these critical early entry forces to be better prepared and to adjust their courses of action as needed prior to combating peer and near-peer adversaries on the ground,” Henderson added.
The EMC tool suite also includes large LED screens that can be mounted throughout the aircraft, so paratroopers can see unmanned aerial vehicle feeds or receive visual updates from the commander before they jump into potentially dangerous drop zones, sometimes in the middle of the night.
“EMC increases their confidence,” Adams said. “They understand the mission on the ground and know in near real time what is happening.”
During the GRF JFE training mission in May, the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division flew in an Air Force C-17 aircraft for six hours, from Fort Bragg to a designated drop zone in New Mexico. EMC enabled the 1st Brigade Combat Team commander to keep ahead of changing battle conditions en route. It provided an enhanced degree of operational flexibility, enabling him to communicate, plan, and adjust with all the joint elements interoperating in the rear, in the air, and forward on the ground, said Army 2nd Lt. Zachary Jacobson, 50th Expeditionary Signal Battalion EMC officer in charge, who supported the training mission.
Bi