The U.S. Army has begun to deploy a lighter variant of its tactical network called the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical as part of a plan to field the on-the-move communications platform to priority light infantry units over the next years, Defense News reported Wednesday.Paul Mehney, an Army spokesman, told Defense News that the WIN-T Tactical Communications Node-Lite and the Network Operations Security Center-Lite were delivered to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.
TCN-L is designed to provide beyond-line-of-sight and high-bandwidth line-of-sight communications while on-the-move or at the halt, as well as support deployment at stationary command posts.
NOSC works to help soldiers manage and secure the tactical network.
The service branch conducted an operational test of TCN-L and NOSC at the Network Integration Evaluation event in July 2017, which yielded mostly positive soldier feedback, the report noted.
The Army is scheduled to stop the acquisition of the second increment of WIN-T by the end of fiscal year 2018 because the current network does not meet future warfighting requirements.
