Network Integration Evaluation phase two gets underway in October

 

Building off lessons learned during the first Network Integration Evaluation conducted this summer, the Army kicked off Network Integration Evaluation 12.1 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and Fort Bliss, in El Paso, this month.

Fort Hood's U.S. Army Operational Test Command will play a lead role.

A triad comprising the Army Test and Evaluation Command, System of Systems Integration and the Brigade Modernization Command will assess network and non-network capabilities and determine their implications across a number of categories.

"We'll measure success by what we will learn by putting these networked capabilities in the hands of soldiers in the field for evaluations," said Maj. Gen. Genaro Dellarocco, Test and Evaluation Command commander. "It's an effective and essential way of doing business."

The evaluation's primary purpose, said Dellarocco, is to continue required evaluations in support of Program of Record milestones.

"(The network integration evaluation) supports the Army holistic focus to integrate network components simultaneously in one operational venue," he said. "It will also begin to establish the Objective Integrated Network Baseline and introduce industry participation in the evaluation cycle."

Army Test and Evaluation Command's efforts will be led by Operational Test Command, one of its subordinate commands, Dellarocco said, and supported by White Sands Missile Range and the Electronic Proving Ground located at Fort Huachuca, Ariz. Data collected during the evaluation is sent to the Army Evaluation Center for analysis at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

"(Network Integration Evaluation 12.1) one is supporting the Joint Tactical Radio System Rifleman Radio Initial Operational Test," said Col. Laura J. Richardson, Operational Test Command commander, "along with the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical Instrumentation Certification event and the Harris Radio comparative assessment."

Conducting developmental and operational testing in an integrated environment such as this, Richardson said, sets the standard for future testing.

"It is far better to do integration up front while changes can be made in the developmental process," she said. "It will ultimately lead to a better product for the soldier."

Operational Test Command's Mission Command Test Directorate again has the lead for 12.1, said Richardson, with the command's Integrated Test and Evaluation Directorate providing support.

Testing began Monday. Results of the evaluation should be ready by early 2012.