The largest operational test in the history of the U.S. Army Operational Test Command will be conducted at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., according to OTC officials.

A Network Integration Evaluation will be conducted, designed to assess the ability for a host of technologies to work in tandem as part of a larger, integrated, cohesive network, said Col. John Wendel, Program Executive Office Integration.

“The purpose is to seek efficiencies and synergies,” he said. “The idea of combining events forces integration, so what we will do is synchronize the technologies into a singular network brigade formation.”

“In terms of the number of systems being tested and the number of personnel supporting,” said Eloise Lundgren, OTC public affairs officer, “the NIE is incomparable to any operational test we’ve conducted before.”

A series of Limited User Tests, Lundgren said, will be followed by a two-week Network Integration Rehearsal.

A cooperative effort between the Army Test and Evaluation Command, Department of the Army, PEO-I, and the Brigade Modernization Command, the NIE will provide a baseline from which to compare next year’s test, Lundgren said.

“Results of this test will support senior Army leadership in acquisition decisions on whether to produce and buy more systems,” she said.

The LUTs will place the program-of-record technologies into operationally relevant scenarios, designed to collect data, answer questions and validate requirements, said Lt. Col. Darby McNulty, PEO-I integration.

“We spend an enormous amount of resources to coordinate single-program tests at multiple locations each year,” McNulty said, “so from a funding and resource-management perspective, there are certainly some efficiencies with combining these LUTs.”

“By beginning to conduct exercises that look at an integrated network, the Army intends to lessen the in-field integration burden on our operational units,” Paul Mehney, PEO-I public affairs officer, said.

The NIE is the first of four major stepping stones on the road to a fully-integrated BCT Network Evaluation at the end of 2012.