The U.S. Army and Navy have tested communications between at-sea and land units using manpack radios and the Mobile User Objective System waveform during an exercise Thursday.Personnel onboard an Army supply vessel in Hawaii used manpack radios and the Joint Battle Command-Platform to support data, images and voice communications with users in five separate locations, the Army said Friday.
“The manpack radio and MUOS waveform, along with JBC-P, enable soldiers to not only share enroute mission command information, but to also know where friendly and enemy forces are located,” said Col. James Ross, the Army’s project manager for tactical radios.
The demonstration for the Pacific Theater at Fort Shafter involved a logistics vessel that carried a manpack radio and an antenna attached to its communications system, the Army said.
According to the service branch, JBC-P then uses the Blue Force Tracking II satellite to track locations in order to display graphics and data to users.
The platform works with the Army’s Nett Warrior mobile device attached to the manpack radio.
“The ability to project and sustain forces from over the shore is an essential capability in the Pacific Command area of operations and a critical component of a multi-dimensional logistics network,” said Maj. Gen. Edward Dorman III, commander of the 8th Theater Sustainment Brigade.
“Enhancing the communications capability will improve how we conduct inter-island surface deployment support, add flexibility to cargo transportation options for the joint force and rapidly respond to crisis throughout the region, including humanitarian assistance situations.”
