General Dynamics to build additional WIN-T wide-area networking and military communications systems
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. –Military communications experts at General Dynamics Corp. will build components of the U.S. Army's tactical communications network backbone that provides data, voice, and video communications on the battlefield under terms of an $11.6 million contract announced last week.
Officials of the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime division at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., awarded the multi-year tactical networking contract to General Dynamics Mission Systems in Taunton, Mass., for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Increment 1 system, which provides data, voice, and video communications to battalion and above echelons using satellite communications (SATCOM).
WIN-T Increment 1, which was fielded between 2004 and 2011, establishes a network backbone that provides data, voice and video communications to battalion and above echelons using satellite communications nodes that set up at-the-quick-halt. General Dynamics is the WIN-T Increment 1 prime contractor.
Similar to a home Internet connection, WIN-T Increment 1 enables soldiers to pull over on the side of the road to communicate without setting up complicated infrastructure. It has three types of transportable network nodes that provide high-speed wide-area networking for secure voice, video and data exchange on the battlefield.
The Tactical Hub Node (THN) supports division headquarters; the Joint Network Node (JNN) supports brigade-level headquarters; and the Battalion Command Post Node (BnCPN) supports battalion-level headquarters. The fourth type of node, the Regional Hub Node (RHN), is a fixed installation equivalent to three THNs and supports theater-level operations.
While General Dynamics is building and maintaining components for WIN-T Increment 1, Army leaders are moving forward on successive increments of the WIN-T battlefield networking system.
WIN-T Increment 2 provides on-the-move capability and a mobile infrastructure with military and commercial SATCOM, as well as line-of-sight radios and antennas. It extends the network to company level for maneuver brigades.
WIN-T Increment 2 began fielding in October 2012. Army units that can operate with at-the-halt networking will continue using WIN-T Increment 1, while mobile units will receive WIN-T Increment 2, which enables mobile mission command from division to company in a mobile, ad-hoc, self-forming, self-healing network.
Later, WIN-T Increment 3 will develop network-operation software to simplify management of the tactical communications network to make communications systems easier to install, operate, maintain, and defend.
On this contract General Dynamics will do the work in Taunton, Mass., and should be finished by January 2021. For more information contact General Dynamics Mission Systems online at https://gdmissionsystems.com, or the Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime at Aberdeen Proving Ground at www.dla.mil/LandandMaritime/Locations/Aberdeen.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
