Comments on: Small Units Need Big Data Pipes

By: JSquared

JSquared — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 20:11:28 +0000

…oh by the way, it has to have type 1 encryption attached to it.

By: teajar

teajar — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:42:00 +0000

DC2 and Cenobyte have both addressed existing technology that could allow distributed, high bandwidth access from lightweight, handheld devices. Commercial mesh products used by first responders in use today has implemented limited antijam and encryption to protect the networks and hide the data, and further improvements could be added for military applications without adding seven years for acquisition and tons of weight that only a MEF Headquarters could haul around. Think of the UAV or ballon supported mesh networks as an extension of existing tactical and operational networks that provide our small units one more advantage over the sturmtruppen and Hezbollah model, and the idea makes sense.

If the explanation is too technical, think of this as radio retrans for a modern force. In this case, the system provides more than single channel voice (though it could support voice) without having to put stationary radio teams at risk on a poorly defended hilltop.

By: mgunns

mgunns — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:21:43 +0000

Why use the big hog for indirect fire, use the 105 instead. Will a field grade officer really be needed, maybe for the chain of command thing. Instead of asking for ID fireing it would be an order, instead of a request. The smaller foot print and ease of movement would make it a good choice. It seems like we are always trying to reinvent the wheel , the small units for recon etc: are already in place. The enemy we are fighting is not stupid and will hack into our systems over a very short period of time, if it is used for extended periods of time. It has been done before and will again. It would be nice to stop being PC and use only Marines or such instead of in country types. I think we all remember Viet Nam and some of the expericenes with indiginous troops, some good, some not so good, so lets keep it to our selfs and let the bad guys find out the hard way what we have and how good it is.
Semper Fi

By: mgunns

mgunns — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:55:32 +0000

I must have missed something during my 33 yrs. I t would seem most of this is already here/there.
God Bless the Fire Eaters
Semper Fi

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:38:18 +0000

It’s more than just running down to Best Buy and grabbing all the Cisco routers off the shelf; it has to be jam-proof and hardened against snooping, because the bad guys can buy Cisco routers too.

By: Byron Skinner

Byron Skinner — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 04:01:42 +0000

Good Evening Folks,

It sounds like the Marines should look at the RATS. It is an iPhone type device that functions on the “Distributed Common Ground System” and integrates with “Backbone”.

ALLONS,
Byron Skinner

By: B.Smitty

B.Smitty — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:46:13 +0000

It looks like the ECO company still has an MG Section, and each Platoon has two SMAWs in the first squad.

By: The Cenobyte

The Cenobyte — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:16:29 +0000

The fact that they can’t come up with a high bandwidth over the horizon system for small units is just sad. The 20watt version of 802.11a has a range of around 5000m or just over 3miles. Jump that to 100watts and you could be looking at dozens of miles. Then use the standard for 802.11r (Mesh networking) and the add 802.11n standards for MIMO (multiple input, multiple output antennas). You end up with a system capabity of self assembling mesh networks carring 100+Mb of data over dozens of miles between units. Drop off a few ballon lifted antena for high gain base stations running a few hundred watts and you have a quick and dirty high bandwith network that could be put in someones backpack.

By: B.Smitty

B.Smitty — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:54:56 +0000

What happened to the organic vehicles in the old DO platoon? Added as needed?

By: DC2 Jennings

DC2 Jennings — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:27:56 +0000

Why not use UAVs such as Global Hawk to enable higher bandwidth? Basically use the aircraft as a wireless access point of sorts. Having a UAV as the access point also allows you to increase bandwidth as necessary simply by putting another plane overhead at 60,000 ft. All of the comms hardware can be installed on the aircraft instead of on the ground.

Also, I know there are commercially available Line Of Sight and Non-Line Of Site networking equipment that creates a wireless mesh. That way bandwidth gets spread out and data transfers over the path of least resistance.

DC2

By: DensityDuck

DensityDuck — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:45:20 +0000

It’s kind of funny that the Marines are saying they need high-rate comm-on-the-move, when Marine Gen. Cartwright was a staunch opponent of TSAT (which had COTM as a centerpiece, along with packetised radio.)

By: Marcase

Marcase — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:52:48 +0000

Perhaps the Marines can copy a page of the Rangers TOE manual; the old RNGR TOE had 3 pltns of 40 plus a wpn pltn (21), which included a sniper sec, mortars and an AT sec, all at Coy level. That’s better for these distributed ops than concentrating Javelins at battalion or higher.

It is kinda strange that the west never could copy a variant of the RPG-7, to be used as artillery. Chechnya proved that a dug in force using a generious amount of RPGs can wreak havoc on a conventional mechanised force.

By: Rick W

Rick W — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:28:12 +0000

Seems that the Marines think the key to fighting like Hezbolla is to have a bunch of toys that Hezbollah did not have. For me that does not compute.