PEO EIS Enterprise Log
Written by PEO EIS
MLF 2009 Volume: 3 Issue: 10 (November/December)
Deployed Soldiers Execute Their MIssions Better and Save Thanks to
Very Small Aperture Terminals and Satellite Communications Networks.
In the area of logistics, every class of supply that the soldier uses in the course of a day—from the food in the dining facility, to bullets, to repair parts, to medical supplies—are there because they have been requisitioned, tracked, stocked and disbursed thanks to data transmitted over the Combat Service Support (CSS) SATCOM Network via VSATs, in tandem with the CSS Automated Information Systems Interface (CAISI) wireless network. The logistics soldiers who order these supplies and services are safer as well because every transaction they transmit via VSATs and CAISI represent a drive they didn’t have to take through ambush alley.
Once materiel is in theater, logistics assistance representatives can better train, advise and assist soldiers in operating and maintaining their systems, thanks to logistics data transmitted by VSATs over the Army Field Support Command Network, at the heart of which is a communications package called the Multi-Media Communications System, a modular, rapidly-deployable, mobile system that provides forward-deployed logistics elements with the suite of Defense Information Systems Network voice, video and data communications services.
The contracts to procure all the materiel and services the soldier needs in theater are monitored in real-time, thanks to VSATs that transmit contract data over the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) VSAT network that connects DCMA offices in Iraq and Afghanistan with the DCMA data center in Boston. This connectivity makes the contracting process more efficient and helps get the right supplies and services to the right place at the right time— when soldiers need them.
In the area of force protection, when the soldier travels in a convoy, he or she is safer from improvised explosive device attacks, thanks to the Joint Explosive Ordnance Disposal VSAT network that transmits data that allows the Joint IED Defeat Organization to aggressively find, develop, test and rapidly deliver emerging counter-IED capabilities. When the soldier reaches the checkpoint at a base, he or she is safer thanks to the biometrics data—anything from fingerprint to iris scans or any other measurable biological or behavioral characteristic—that has been transmitted via VSATs over the CSS SATCOM network.
In the area of military personnel, data about every personnel transaction that affects the soldier—from his or her pay, to dependent benefits, to when he or she is due to rotate out, to when he or she is eligible for promotion—has been transmitted via VSATs over the CSS SATCOM network. In the area of medical care, routine medical information that helps keep the soldier healthy—from his or her immunization record, to when he or she is due for an HIV test, to his or her eye prescription, to what types of medications he or she needs—has been transmitted via CSS VSATs over the CSS SATCOM network.
If the soldier is wounded, X-rays, CT scans and MRI films will be with him or her every step of the way—from the Joint Base Balad Medical Center to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to a CONUS medical center— thanks to the large medical imagery files that have been transmitted via VSATs over the Joint Telemedicine Network ( JTMN). And should one of the limited number of radiologists in Iraq or Afghanistan need to consult with medical specialists anywhere around the world, they can do so realtime, face-to-face in a video teleconference, transmitted via VSATs over the JTMN.
The Defense Wide Transmission Systems program has fielded more than 2,500 VSATs and more than 24,000 CAISI modules worldwide and has established and maintains multiple SATCOM networks to support our troops. Regardless of the job of any soldier in the Army, he or she can execute their mission more effectively, have a better quality of life, and be safer in the combat zone thanks to DWTS’ VSATs and SATCOM networks that provide secure pipelines to keep the Army moving, well serviced and supplied and ready for the mission. ♦