An M1087 Expandable Van Shelter houses the Command Post Integrated Infrastructure System. Image: Sgt. 1st Class Frederick E. Estep/ US Army
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The US Army is seeking to develop more survivable command posts for dispersed operations.
Under Command Post Integrated Infrastructure (CPI2) Increment 1, the army also seeks to reduce the command post’s physical signature for improved mobility and agility.
“Five years ago, two years ago, we spent a day setting up a command post and then we spent a day tearing it down, so the command post was never able to really fight,” C4ISRNET quoted assistant program executive officer Ward Roberts as saying.
“Now, the idea is that the commander needs to be maneuvering the command post as well as maneuvering his elements.”
Command Post Integrated Infrastructure.
The CPI2 Increment 1 includes a mission command platform and command post support vehicle with a minimum power of 12 kilowatts and 20 kilowatts, respectively.
The service seeks to field the mission command platforms and tactical command posts at corps, division, brigade, and battalion levels and mobile command groups for corps and division levels.
“Additionally, Increment 1 will comprise the integration of a unified voice management system, secure wireless mesh remote endpoint, advanced medium mobile power source, command post display screen, advanced field artillery tactical data system, USB taclink, KGV-72s, and various radios, among others,” Shepherd Media wrote, citing the draft request for proposal.
The service is likely to award an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract in 2024, including a five-year ordering period and another five-year option period.
The solution’s fielding is expected through 2035.
So the service is investing in several projects to make the battlefield hubs hardier, including what are known as Command Post Integrated Infrastructure and the less-mature Mobile and Survivable Command Post. The former combines trucks with communication nodes and off-the-shelf commercial technologies for intuitive use. The latter could feature remote antenna systems, enhanced camouflage techniques and self-sufficient power generation and banking.
“Five years ago, two years ago, we spent a day setting up a command post and then we spend a day tearing it down, so the command post was never able to really fight,” Ward Roberts, the assistant program executive officer for command, control and communications-tactical, or PEO C3T, said at a virtual C4ISRNET event May 16. “Now, the idea is that commander needs to be maneuvering the command post as well as maneuvering his elements.”
“Between the ability to move the command post around and the efforts to reduce the ability to detect the command post — two lines of effort really driving at solving that problem of ‘how do we make the command post survivable,’” he added.
A conflict with either China or Russia would mean defending against an array of eager eyes and ears: drones overhead, signals intelligence capabilities that can cue in on communications, and other long-range sensors. Commanders need to understand their footprint, Ward said, as well as how to manipulate the hardware they have in hand.
The envisioned future — to which the broader Defense Department is cleaving — is a far cry from the decades the U.S. spent waging counterterrorism campaigns in the Middle East, where combatants were less equipped and less technologically savvy.
“Most of our commanders have grown up not having to worry about that problem. When you were in a forward-operating base in Iraq and Afghanistan, it wasn’t a challenge,” Roberts said. “We have seen that when you have a highly skilled enemy, you can’t sit there very long. If you do sit there and long, they’re going to find you. If they can find you, they can target you.”
Footage captured in Ukraine and disseminated through social media, among other outlets, shows the dangers of staying still; entrenched troops are often the pickings of airdropped ordnance, as are slow-rolling vehicles.
Maj. Gen. Jeth Rey, the director of the Army’s Network Cross-Functional Team, earlier this month told reporters there is a clear demand for mobility. Minutes in the same place can mean the difference between life or death.
“We can’t halt,” said Ge. Rey, who works closely with PEO C3T. “One of the big things we’re moving forward on is on-the-move capabilities for them.”
