CSM Forum

by Command Sergeant Major Randolph Hollingsworth

Master Sergeant Robert P. Lopez, from the Fort Huachuca Battle Command Battle Laboratory, will be my guest writer for this issue of the Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin. I ask that you keep this issue in a special place for future reference as this article provides you a view of the future of our MI Corps.

The Fort Huachuca Battle Command Battle Laboratory

The purpose of this article is to describe the mission of the Fort Huachuca Battle Command Battle Laboratory. Before getting into specifics, let us step back a few years and approach this topic within a historical context.
In 1415, in the middle of a muddy battlefield known as Agincourt, Henry V led 11,000 English pikemen and archers to victory over 51,000 French soldiers. The English longbow was the decisive factor in the decimation of the French knights and helped the English capture Normandy. In 1588, after braving bad weather along the English Channel, a massive flotilla of Spanish vessels was destroyed by a small fleet of maneuverable English ships equipped with cannons. Naval artillery proved to be the decisive factor in the destruction of the Spanish Armada and marked the beginning of the end of Spanish dominance in Europe.
In June 1950, North Korean troops attacked South Korea and rapidly advanced through the limited maneuver corridors of the Korean peninsula. The inability of the American and South Korean troops to stop the Soviet-made T-34 tank proved to be a decisive factor in the early stages of the Korean War.
Accounts of technologically superior weapons and tactics defeating numerically superior forces using existing doctrine and inferior weapons are as old as war itself. The quest for the 'magic bullet' that can defeat a larger, stronger enemy will continue as long as nations exist. Will the U.S. Army be leading this search for new weapon systems and technologies with military applications? That is the charter of Force XXl: to change the Army to fulfill the needs of the 21st century with the best use of our quality soldiers, leaders, and new technology. As described in TRADOC Pamphlet 525-5, Force XXl Operations, this is a concept for the evolution of full-dimensional operations for the strategic Army of the early 21st century.
Battle Labs conduct various experiments within their respective areas of battle dynamics and focus on battlefield capabilities and priorities. The areas of battle dynamics are
These Battle Labs conduct studies of battlefield capabilities and priorities, leveraging horizontal technology insertion with experimentation to prove new technological advances and rapidly insert them into the Army Force structure. The focus of Battle Labs is the changing nature of the battlefield. The use of Battle Lab Warfighting Experiments (BLWEs) and Advanced Warfighting Experiments (AWEs) provide the Battle Lab with the freedom to explore, be creative and innovative, and take advantage of new technological advances. Warfighting experiments pertaining to only one battle dynamic are called BLWEs while those larger experiments centered on several battle dynamics are called AWEs. Both BLWEs and AWEs may use constructive, live, and virtual activity to test the technology or concept.
The current focus of the Battle Command Battle Lab (Huachuca) is the Task Force XXl AWE to be conducted at the National Training Center (NTC), Fort Irwin, California, in March 1997. The integration of enhanced intelligence collection assets into an improved information support architecture will provide the First Brigade, 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (4th ID (M)) Experimental Force (EXFOR) commander with a "common, relevant picture of the battlefield" that includes a current enemy situation overlaid on the Blue Force's (friendly units) deployment. The digitalization effort of the Task Force XXl tactical Internet will provide the locations of Blue Force units. The intelligence community is challenged to deliver timely intelligence developed from all organic, theater, and national assets to the brigade commander. In order to accomplish this, experimentation and validation of these technologies in the field must first occur. Then, incorporation of the validated technologies into the Army force structure will guarantee successful mission accomplishment.
Task Force XXI provides a major test platform for several Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTDs) and the field testing of several prototype systems. ACTDs are sponsored and executed jointly by a team comprised of an operational user and a technology developer, with approval and oversight from the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Advanced Technology. The Advanced Concept Technology II (ACT II) program enables direct industry involvement, along with Army combat and materiel developers , in helping to define technology that will lead the Army to its Force XXI vision. ACT II supports BLWEs and AWEs through competetive funding of industry's most advanced technologies, prototypes ans non-developmental items.
The Battlefield Awareness and Data Dissemination (BADD) ACTD will deploy and demonstrate an information system to assist the dissemination of data and deliver a consistent picture of the battlefield to warfighters. This is accomplished by the integration of tactical, operational, and national multimedia information, and provides warfighters the ability to receive, manipulate, visualize, and use information.
This demonstration will occur under the strenuous combat-like situation of an NTC rotation. The scenario will be fluid and intense, requiring the EXFOR to relocate ("jump") their Tactical Operation Center (TOC) and its supporting intelligence Analysis Control Team (ACT) several times during the exercise. Another technological demonstration will be the Semiautomated IMINT (imagery intelligence) Processing (SAIP) System. This technology enables positive identification of moving target indicators and stationary images acquired by reconnaissance and surveillance platforms through automatic target recognition and interactive target recognition technologies.
The Common Ground Station Prototype (also called CGS-P) will allow the deployed brigade TOC to receive a direct feed from such collection, reconnaissance, and surveillance platforms as the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), the Guardrail Common Sensor (GRCS), the TR-1 (U-2) and other theater- and national-level assets. The CGS-P then provides this information to the ACT where a small intelligence element using the prototype All-Source Analysis System Remote Work Station (ASAS-RWS) will respond to the brigade commander's critical intelligence requirements. As the situation fluctuates, the ACT will be able to provide the Task Force commander with an unparalleled view of the enemy and his deployed equipment.
The Battle Command Battle Lab (Huachuca), in conjunction with the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca, has trained 4 ID (M) intelligence soldiers on these prototype systems. Together, they developed tactics, training, and procedures for the employment of these systems. The lessons learned from Task Force XXl will be incorporated into the Division XXl AWE currently planned for November 1997. As commercial technology continues to introduce new software and hardware innovations, it is imperative that the U.S. Army assimilates the best of these technologies and maintains the edge over all potential adversaries.

ALWAYS OUT FRONT!

Master Sergeant Lopez is an Intelligence Analyst currently assigned to the Operations Section of the Battle Command Battle Lab (Huachuca). His previous assignments include: Department of the Army, Military Intelligence Information Management; the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana; 1st Battlefield Coordination Detachment, Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and many other Ml brigade and battalion assignments. He has a bachelor's degree in History from the University of Arizona. Readers can contact him at (520) 533-l888, DSN 821-l888, and through E-mail at lopezr(@ huachuca-emh30.army. mil.