Page 1 - Ft. Huachuca Scout 6-26-15

Vol. 62, No. 25
June 26, 2015

Published in the interest of Fort Huachuca personnel and their Families. Online @ www.aerotechnews.com/forthuachuca/ or via smartphone.

Always Be Careful Victory! Two Soldiers Sierra Vista,
— learn monsoon score top spots after partners plan
safety ABCs … winning grueling daylong festivities
(4A) competition … for July 4 at park …
(10A, 11A) (1B)

USAEPG responds to Army radio test needs

Story and photos by Capt. Ray Ragan to reduce the risk for Army acquisi-
ATEC tion before moving to an operational
test event, often involving Soldiers
The U.S. Army Electronic Proving in a field setting. However, NDIs are
Ground, USAEPG, recently completed treated a little differently than those
a vendor qualification event for a new Army-developed systems.
Army radio system.
“It is different than a typical DT,” said
USAEPG has been the long-time Ar- Tyson Vander Linden, the USAEPG test

my’s designated developmental tester for officer-in-charge for the SRW-A vendor
Command, Control, Communications, qualification event.

Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, While NDIs may not go through a

and Reconnaissance, or C4ISR, systems traditional DT phase, Army acquisition

which include radios and telecommu- professionals still need performance

nication systems. However, the Army’s and reliability data about the candidate

test needs for this new radio system, the systems and that evaluation data is of-

Soldier Radio Waveform — Appliqué, ten collected through vendor qualifica-

or SRW-A radio, used vendor-provid- tion events. USAEPG is able to offer the

ed systems, called non-developmental Army these types of vendor qualifica-

items, or NDI. tion events, as it has with this SRW-A A dismounted tester and a Humvee with the SRW-A radio mounted inside collect evaluation data
SRW-A radios are vehicle-mounted radio program, he explained. on the radio is shown with the Huachuca Mountains in the background on Dec. 12.

radios that provide tactical units and dis- Fort Huachuca provides an ideal test cording to Vander Linden. ule that collects data on the radio itself.
mounted Soldiers the ability to securely bed for radio telecommunications, be-
communicate with their higher-head- cause of the over 2,400 square miles of “It was a pretty expeditious request Finally, there is a system where testers
quarters and surrounding units using range space and unusually quiet radio
for us to execute this test,” he said. “All may manually enter data, based on the

the Soldier Radio Waveform. This new spectrum created by the mountains that the evaluators, the AEC (Army Evalua- data needs of AEC, he explained.

waveform is tailored for the increasing ring the area. tion Center), TCM (TRADOC Capabili- The evaluation data proved to be a

need of data on the battlefield. Despite the expansive range space of ties Manager) folks, the guys back at the logistical challenge as well, as the data

Typically, Army-developed systems Fort Huachuca, testing the SRW-A ra- Pentagon wanted to see a very compre- is usually processed at the test site. Be-

go through a developmental test, or dios was both a schedule and logistical hensive test. cause the SRW-A vendor qualification

DT, phase, which tests systems to en- challenge, given that the test involved “You have a timescale you have to used two sites to ensure vendor separa-

sure they perform well outside of an four vendors that needed to be separated meet and you have to balance between tion, this required the shuttling of data
engineering or laboratory setting and to ensure a fair qualification event, ac- all four vendors. You don’t want to give between test sites and data reduction

another vendor an unfair advantage over and analysis sites, he added.

the others.” The SRW-A vendor qualification

Overcoming these challenges ulti- comes at a time when USAEPG is very

mately is to collect data, to inform the busy testing many different systems, not

decision-making process with Army ac- just in radios and communications, but

quisition professionals. also in intelligence and electronic warfare.

“The data being collected is using The strain has stretched the workforce, but

standard EPG data collection systems,” the workforce has met the challenge.

said Peter Shreve, the USAEPG lead “People that you’ve been working

data reduction specialist for the vendor with for several years, all of a sudden

qualification event. you put them in this new position and

The data collection systems are they just excel in them and perform

+XPYHHVZLWK65:$UDGLRVPRXQWHGDUHUHDG\WRPRYHRXWGXULQJDYHQGRUTXDOL¿FDWLRQHYHQW three-fold in nature. There is an exter- beyond a level of your expectation,”
RQ'HF7KHUDGLRLVSDUWRIDYHQGRUTXDOL¿FDWLRQHYHQWDWWKH86$UP\(OHFWURQLF3URYLQJ nal data collection module, collecting Vander Linden said. “You think you
Ground, the Army’s designated developmental tester for Command, Control, Communications, evaluation data external to the radios. have a good bead on somebody and then
Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems that include radio and There is an embedded collection mod- they exceed your expectations.”
military telecommunications.