Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
CE 09 is a flagship communications exercise highlighting EUCOM’s Strategy of Active Security. This year, 40 nations crossing two unified commands—EUCOM and CENTCOM—and three continents with more than 1,200 participants will conduct approximately 1,000 communication information systems interoperability tests during a two-week period.
This will mark the first time that three separate locations have been used for the multinational communications event. It is also the first time that a Partnership for Peace (PfP) nation, Bosnia-Herzegovina, will be used as the main site. At Banja Luca, there will be approximately 600 personnel participating during the exercise period. Other exercise sites this year include Suz Base, Netherlands, and Copenhagen, Denmark.
The interoperability test locations and participation by NATO and PfP nations are unique. Combined Endeavor sets conditions for multinational C4 network success and eliminates “discovery learning” upon deployment for military and humanitarian operations. The test documentation gained from these series of exercises has been utilized in multinational deployments.
Tests this year will focus on net-centric capabilities, user-defined common operational pictures, ISAF and NATO Response Force pre-deployment testing, and cyberdefense. The results of the tests will be compiled and added to the integrated interoperability guide that has been maintained since the first Combined Endeavor. The guide is used as a tool to assist in the rapid deployment of coalition networks for NATO and coalition mission and crisis response.
“This year’s Combined Endeavor is especially important, exciting and challenging,” said U.S. Air Force Brigadier General David A. Cotton, director, command, control, communications and war fighting integration and chief information officer (J6/CIO) for HQ U.S. European Command.
“The national planners agreed to try something new this year and ‘break the mold’ to accomplish what has not been attempted in Combined Endeavor’s 14-year history. In past years, all of the participating nations and organizations would deploy their personnel and equipment to a familiar site in Germany to test the interoperability of their communications, save one year when the exercise was in Austria. Last year, the national communication leaders agreed to conduct deployable communications operations from three locations, all of which have their unique logistical and operational requirements that have to be met in order for Combined Endeavor 2009 to succeed,” Cotton explained.
“One of the more obvious challenges is to successfully plan, coordinate and attain national clearances to transport all personnel and equipment to these three locations, each in a different country,” he continued. “Once the personnel arrive, they must quickly and effectively establish a stable multinational network to conduct communications interoperability testing and integration. In some cases, such as Denmark, they will have equipment at each of the Combined Endeavor sites to provide the backbone for satellite connectivity and the hubs for the coalition network.
“The main operating base will be in Bosnia- Herzegovina, and the two regional operating sites will be in Denmark and the Netherlands. Each of these nations has stepped up to prepare their sites for hosting over 1,100 communicators and 400 support personnel for Combined Endeavor 2009. All participating nations will have representatives working in the Combined Joint Communications Coordination Center in Bosnia-Herzegovina, to coordinate and oversee the exercise,” Cotton said.
The most innovative and significant approaches being tried this year involve communications standards, including the Tactical Communications Standard (TACOMS), which is a commercial interface standard that integrates communications systems, allowing them to pass data to one another. The Netherlands has taken the lead in developing TACOMS as a NATO standard and will lead several Combined Endeavor nations through testing and integration of their TACOMScompliant systems. TACOMS has been submitted to NATO and is undergoing the approval process to become a NATO standard.
DISA, GSA Combine on COMSAT Acquisition
In a move that will bring major changes to the way the military and other federal organizations acquire commercial satellite communications resources, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the General Services Administration (GSA) have agreed to create a common marketplace for such services.
Under an agreement signed in late July by DISA Director Lieutenant General Carroll F. Pollett and James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, the two agencies will cooperate to create the Future COMSAT Services Acquisition (FCSA) program. The new program, which is slated to go into operation in 2011, will have a total value of more than $5 billion over 10 years.
After exploring the possibility of merging acquisitions, DISA and GSA ultimately sealed the deal to ensure a common marketplace for satisfying the majority of the federal government’s future commercial satellite communication requirements. DISA and GSA are committed to President Obama’s agenda for cooperation among federal organizations.
“Why manage separate contract vehicles that offer essentially the same services when we can combine forces?” said Tony Montemarano, DISA’s component acquisition executive.
In unveiling the program in early August at a meeting with industry and a teleconference with reporters, agency officials predicted that the new program would lead to cost savings and a leveling out of government spending for commercial SATCOM, which has grown rapidly in recent years. The savings will come from elimination of redundant administrative costs both by the two agencies, which will no longer have to manage separate programs, as well as by companies, which will reduce overhead involved in bidding on multiple contracts.
In addition, the federal government can expect to save through combined buying power, which will reduce bandwidth expenses by an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent through economies of scale.
FSCA will replace three existing programs: DISA’s Defense Information Systems Network Satellite Transmission Services-Global (DSTS-G) and Inmarsat contracts, and GSA’s SATCOM-2 contract. The DISA programs acquire about $350 million a year, while GSA currently manages $47 million in annual acquisitions.
The DSTS-G program, which expires in 2011, involves three initially small businesses—Artel, Spacelink (now DRS Technologies) and Arrowhead (now CapRock Communications—acting as prime contractors combining offerings from other satellite companies. The program has attracted both strong defenders, who say it fosters an integrated approach to delivering services to warfighters, and critics, who argue that it unnecessarily limits market access. (See Military Information Technology, June 2009, page 9.)
FSCA will have three components: dedicated transponder capacity; subscription services, including terminals; and end-to-end solutions, including bandwidth, access, terminals and network management. Vendors will compete for master contracts in any service area and, if selected, then compete for specific task orders.
Two indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contact vehicles will be established for end-to-end services, with one of the vehicles reserved for small businesses.
“I see nothing but better things ahead for all of our customers,” said Bruce T. Bennett, DISA’s director of satellite communications, teleport and services. ♦
Combined Endeavor (CE) 09, the world’s largest communication interoperability exercise, will be held in September featuring several firsts for the annual event.
