LandWarNet Goes to School

Interesting initiative by the US Army
http://tinyurl.com/mdsgc

The Army’s vision of a comprehensive network linked by everything-over-Internet-Protocol technology is taking shape in human form at Fort Gordon, Ga., with the initiation of LandWarNet University.

By Karen E. Thuermer

The Army’s vision of a comprehensive network linked by everything-over-Internet-Protocol technology is taking shape in human form at Fort Gordon, Ga., with the initiation of LandWarNet University (LWN-U). The Army Signal Corps’ newest training environment started in February and is expected to be fully operational by October.

LWN-U was funded with $30 million earmarked by the Army to update its training infrastructure and organization at the Signal Center. The goal is to train soldiers to operate mobile IP networks.

It is one of a handful of top Signal Center priorities that also includes supporting the global war on terror, transforming the Army Signal Center training, modernizing signal equipment, and restructuring the Signal Force. These efforts are vital to the Signal Center and the Army as a whole, said Brigadier General Ronald Bouchard, deputy commanding general/assistant commandant for the Army Signal Center and School.

“LWN-U has the potential to be larger than the Signal Center itself,” Bouchard said. “We will be providing training and support to warfighters.”

LandWarNet represents the Army’s constellation of computer and communications networks under the DoD-wide Global Information Grid (GIG), which provides the platform through which all networks are able to communicate. The concept includes all Army networks, from sustaining military bases to forward-deployed forces, and supports users around the world.

But soldiers and military leaders must be educated on LandWarNet, which includes technology that may extend far beyond the legacy systems on which many have been trained. That’s where LWN-U comes in.

The mission of LWN-U “is to continuously train and educate soldiers and leaders from the classroom to the battlefield by integrating training between multiple enabling organizations in order to provide network-enabled battle command in support of leader-centric operations.”
The training needs to span the entire Army among multiple enabling organizations, Bouchard emphasized. “This includes its colleges and centers, Battle Command Training Centers (BCTC), and Centralized Training Support Facilities (CTSF). The concept of LWN-U is to synchronize these domains to better train and educate soldiers when and where needed.”

To achieve that end, LWN-U sets out to change the way signal soldiers are trained and updated in their skills for their military occupational specialty, so that they think about how the Army works with the other services in the realm of Joint Task Forces.

“We want to provide training for certainty and educate for uncertainty” Bouchard said. “Through education we can provide the appropriate foundation for soldiers to think on their feet in the complex world they are operating in.”

The benefits of LWN-U are already evident to one student, Warrant Officer Michael Bailey. “Here they supply us with all of the equipment and the instruction that ties well in one class to another,” he said. “In the past when I went to school, we did not have the equipment. They gave us the training at the unit, and every unit was trained differently. LWN-U makes it easier not only for a solider, but for the leader as well. Now that I’m being trained as a leader, I will be able to give my soldiers the training I receive.”

Multifunction Signaleers
A key issue facing LWN-U is to prepare soldiers to handle a wide range of changing COTS-based systems in a variety of situations, rather than master a small number of proprietary systems based on standardized equipment.

“If we educate soldiers on how to utilize equipment across the board, they will have more flexibility and adaptability in a wider host of situations,” Bouchard said. “In turn, this type of training allows the Army to take advantage of the latest and greatest technology available.”
That’s why constantly updating training is important. A soldier may have been trained on the legacy Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) System, but the Army can not afford to be locked in a position where it must find outdated replacement parts if this equipment breaks down.
Consequently, soldiers at LWN-U will now be educated on the fundamentals of the equipment.
“The goal is to create a multifunctional signal soldier, whereas today, one signaleer may be responsible for installing radio systems while another may be the switch operator. The new paradigm may require a soldier to be capable of handling both tasks. The idea is to streamline the number of military occupational specialties.”

Even the method of instruction has changed. “In the past, classroom instruction revolved around formal presentations. Then soldiers were trained on equipment,” Bouchard said. “Once they were proficient on the equipment, they would proceed to the next lesson.”

But today’s generation of soldiers learn differently. “They are much more hands-on,” he explained. “The training strategy is to support learning in all phases so that the soldier will be a contributing member of the unit from day one. In fact, those who are being trained [in July] may be in Afghanistan and Iraq before the end of the year.”

Given this immediacy, soldiers are initially put into an advance immersion environment that replicates a contemporary operating environment. “This advanced immersion allows them to acquire common technical skills in a complex tactical environment,” Bouchard said.
The soldiers then progress into their core competency training, where they are educated on their specific specialties. The soldiers’ training and education is culminated in a capstone exercise that allows them to demonstrate their skills in a tactical environment.

To accommodate this change, the Signal School House has been revamped to provide more relevant and rigorous training with equipment simulations and hands-on equipment. The School House has been re-fitted with modular classrooms and training labs for the Joint Network Node, the system developed by the Army to meet the communications needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“Simulation packages, especially those on the Web, make it possible for soldiers to practice their skills until proficient. They then go onto hands-on equipment,” he explained. “This allows the soldiers to progress at their own pace.”

Another initiative is to make every classroom an environment that emulates a Command Post. This objective is to produce signal soldiers and leaders who can operate over the full range of the GIG, are prepared for the complexity of the network, capable of maneuvering the network in support of full spectrum operations and able to integrate information systems and battle command, and understand the capabilities of LandWarNet.

Virtual School House
The ultimate goal is to provide LandWarNet education via lifelong learning anywhere the soldier or leader may go during their career in the Army. This will be accomplished by LandWarNet-eUniversity (LWN-eU). LWN-eU is the Army’s new virtual continuing education tool that was launched in April.

“From LWN-eU the soldier can acquire what LWN information they need to know to include learning via equipment simulations,” Bouchard said. “The soldier can even access and download LWN-eU deployed anywhere in the world to include Iraq and Afghanistan.”

LWN-eU can also operate like a Virtual Extension Campus delivering distance education programs. Some recent LWN-eU Virtual Extension Campuses were established for the 22nd Signal Brigade in Baghdad, 506th Regimental Combat Team at Fort Campbell, Ky., and the 7th Signal Brigade in Germany.

Another objective for LWN-eU is to support training and education throughout the Reset, Train-up, and Ready cycle of the Army Force Generation (ARFORGEN) Model. Other objectives include the development of career maps that map and record a soldier’s military and civilian education opportunities to obtain college credits for the completion of university degrees or certifications.

“As soldiers get credit, this would go on their automated transcripts,” said Bouchard. “This system would also tell soldiers what specific skills they need as they progress in their careers. Ideally, the system would work with a number of colleges and universities to link a cooperative degree program. The goal is to become a more professional Signal Corps.”
As the Training and Doctrine Command’s executive agent for lifelong learning, the Signal Center continues to explore ways to deliver Web-based training in support of resident and non-resident training and education. This also includes ways of collaborating with other services on the sharing of LWN-U training products.

“Besides our Virtual Training Campuses, we are looking at ways of supporting training at unit locations by putting network trainers on site and conducting standardized training tailored to the commander’s needs and requirements,” he explained. “The concept is that the more training we are able to do at the unit level this reduces the amount of training the soldier will require in the School House for future training.”

The LWN-eU is already attracting attention from other branches of the military. In June, Marine Brigadier General George Allen, director for command, control, communications and computers and chief information officer for the Marines, visited Fort Gordon to review ways to include LWN-eU training products in that service’s schools.

On the corporate side, executives from Cisco have also paid LWN-U a visit. “They were enthusiastic to see what we are doing,” Bouchard said. “We are leading the way in using equipment simulations in training.”

The expected outcome of this training and education initiative is to create a more agile and adaptive soldier and leader. Brigadier General Randy Strong, commanding general of the Signal Center and School, sees the future of the Signal Regiment as “the provider and integrator of information through network-centric information technology systems. We must be the Tactical Operation Center’s information systems integrator and enable information management/knowledge management for the warfighter.”