NIE to decide fate of mid-tier vehicular network

FORT BLISS, Texas — The Network Integration Evaluation slated to start Monday May 2 ​will decide the fate of the mid-tier vehicular network.

"The vice chief [of the Army] directed an assessment of the network to see if there is a need for the mid-tier network," Capt. Justin Seehusen, the assistant program manager for the Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio (MNVR), told Defense News on TuesdayApril 26​, just prior to the NIE’s start.

The MNVR connects the HMS family of radios — mostly dismounted, hand-held units that push voice communications and data — to battalion and brigade Tactical Operations Centers so that colonels and generals can get line-of-site data from the radios, according to Seehusen.

Right now the radio exists only in the test community, with units at NIE, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and other test sites.

The radio should be able to provide the capability for commanders to see what’s happening on the battlefield in satellite communications-denied environments, Seehusen said.

At the NIE, satellite communications will be shut off. If all goes well, the data will be pushed seamlessly through the mid-tier network instead.

The Joint Battle Command-Platform, the Army’s networked battle command information system that shows units, in near real-time, where friendly and enemy forces are on the battlefield through maps, graphics and messages, will support the MNVR testing at NIE.

Normally the JBC-P uses the Blue Force tracking network through a satellite transceiver to send information to the platform, but the satellite connectivity will be shut down and automatically connect to the MNVR.

The capability has been tested once before, and it was deemed highly successful. The soldiers didn’t know they’d lost the satellite save the indication on the top of the platform’s screen that goes red when satellite communications go out. The JBC-P continued to function just as it had before with full connectivity.

The program office is looking for soldier feedback at the NIE through the form of an after-action survey on how the MNVR handled data and how that affected soldiers’ ability to fight.

The Brigade Modernization Command will then make an assessment and issue a report on how well MNVR performed, which will inform fielding decisions that could be anything from killing the program to deciding how many should get fielded and who should get the capability to recommending more units be procured than originally planned.

Other radio fielding strategies have changed dramatically following an NIE. It was decided, for instance, that the Army really only needs one-third of the radios it originally planned to buy. The Army wanted every soldier to have one of the hand-held radios, but the soldiers using the radio at the NIE realized, for the most part, they were always close enough to their unit leader that a radio was unnecessary, according to Brigade Modernization Command commander Brig. Gen. Terry McKerrick.