The 101st Airborne Division is getting a serious upgrade, enhancing how air and ground elements communicate which is especially crucial for an Air Assault division designed to infiltrate via helicopter.
The modernization concept is called "transformation in contact" and is being run as an experiment first in the 101st's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (2-101). The new technologies were integrated into the unit this year over the course of three training exercises.
The first exercise tested the unit's ability to conduct a large-scale, long-range air assault operation that was launched for Fort Campbell in Kentucky to Fort Johnson in Louisiana.
"Our main objective in January was to determine if we could create and maintain the seamless transmission of data between the ground force and the supporting aerial platforms throughout a challenging 500-nautical mile large-scale air assault," explained Maj. Brad Anderson, who works on the modernization project.
Air-to-ground communications may sound like nothing new, but maintaining seamless communications between so many different assets and ground troops all while under simulated enemy fire, electronic warfare jamming, and refueling makes for an exceptionally challenging scenario.
The second exercise dubbed Legal Eagle saw dismounted troops utilizing tablets that allowed them to connect to one another, via a secure communications node, and share information in real time. Soldiers were able to communicate with their battalion headquarters through a mesh network.
"This gave everyone a common operating picture to give us better situational awareness than I've ever had before," Lt. Col. Walter Gray, who commands the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, said.
Over the summer the 101st Brigade conducted the JRTC exercise which was the culmination of the integration of new technologies to their formation. One of the big changes was integrating new radios into the aircraft which communicate through the Mobile User Objective Systems Manpack, or MUOS, satellite, giving the unit increased radio range.
Considered an overall success by the Army, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team is, "ready to deploy with multiple air-to-ground and mission command redesigns that enhance the lethality, mobility and survivability for their missions, ensuring these premier units will be even more ready to support large scale combat operations against any adversary," an Army press release states.