ABERDEEN PROVING Ground, Md. (July 23, 2020) – Army Futures Command (AFC) is utilizing rapid prototyping to integrate tactical network techniques, which is able to enhance functionality of the Soldier-worn Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), onto combat automobiles.
IVAS provides Soldiers with improved situational consciousness capabilities as they combat, prepare and rehearse missions. IVAS capabilities include a digital show to entry data with out taking eyes off the battlefield, thermal and low-light sensors, speedy goal acquisition, aided goal identification and augmented reality.
The Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center – a part of AFC’s Combat Capabilities Development Command – is main the prototyping efforts, in coordination with IVAS builders and network venture management places of work. The middle uses its in-house expertise to tell and refine the design, match and perform needed to home and combine community parts, including radios, servers and cables.
The C5ISR Center began design work this spring to integrate IVAS devices with Stryker armored autos, leading to Vehicle Excursion 2 (VE2) in January 2021 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. The Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team (SL CFT) will host VE 2 with a few dozen participating organizations from Army analysis and development, acquisition and operational forces. It is going to be a static automobile consumer examine targeted on assessing the utility and proof of concept of new capabilities on Strykers and Bradley Fighting Vehicles to gain early Soldier suggestions.
To boost IVAS network connectivity and capabilities, C5ISR Center engineers and network system developers engineered a network communications gateway and data administration equipment referred to as Project Bloodhound in 2019. The C5ISR Center delivered the built-in network package mounted on an MRZR all-terrain car, which allowed dismounted Soldiers using IVAS to connect into the broader Army tactical network to share and receive data.
This prototype and others will improve modernization efforts led by the C5ISR Center, SL CFT, rapid prototype the Network CFT, Program Manager IVAS, and PM Tactical Radios.
Bloodhound permits larger connectivity all through the corporate echelon, by means of a tactical radio integration kit that features radio gateways that allow voice and data info to be pushed and pulled from a number of sources. This idea is being applied to the Stryker prototype effort.
“We designed Project Bloodhound as a modular automobile-mounted system that may be integrated into any car,” said C5ISR Center mechanical engineer Ryan Stuk. “Certain features could be employed in a command submit or dismounted capability. We’re now taking the data and experience gained from the MRZR integration and applying those to Strykers.”
The Stryker effort will provide further capabilities for Soldiers, whether or not they are mounted, dismounted or in transition, Stuk mentioned. The Army’s three targets are to leverage the Strykers as an IVAS energy supply to maintain mission functionality, integrate with existing and future automobile-based onboard digicam programs, and enhance Soldiers’ situational consciousness whereas mounted or transitioning to dismounted.
The Center’s organic, inner prototype integration facility (PIF) has enabled the Army to meets its objectives for multiple design iterations, changing necessities and fast deadlines, mentioned Tom Brutofsky, chief of the C5ISR PIF. A key side to Project Bloodhound has been additive manufacturing, generally generally known as 3D printing.
“The C5ISR PIF has invested heavily in additive manufacturing to develop a rapid prototype prototyping functionality to deliver useful designs with important cost and time financial savings,” Brutofsky mentioned. “The PIF manufactured the MRZR Bloodhound prototype approximately 80 % through additive processes and went from concept to practical prototype in less than three months.
“Additive manufacturing additionally permits simpler modifications as engineers gather Soldier feedback throughout workout routines and because the Army identifies extra vehicles for network equipment integration.”
Soldier touch factors like VE2 enable the Army to transition from R&D to prototypes after which mature capabilities for fielding.
“For the C5ISR Center, incorporating Soldier suggestions is essential,” Brutofsky stated. “Understanding the wants of Soldiers on the battlefield early on helps us make better use of time and resources.”
For more info, contact the C5ISR Center Public Affairs Office: usarmy.apg.ccdc-c5isr.mbx.pao@mail.mil.
———
The C5ISR Center is the Army’s utilized research and advanced expertise growth center for C5ISR capabilities. As the Army’s major integrator of C5ISR technologies and methods, the middle develops and matures capabilities that help all six Army modernization priorities, enabling data dominance and tactical overmatch for the joint warfighter.
The C5ISR Center is an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. Through collaboration throughout the command’s core technical competencies, CCDC leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the know-how-based capabilities required to make Soldiers extra lethal to win our nation’s wars and come home safely. CCDC is a serious subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.