WASHINGTON — The next stage of the US Army's mobile communications network is moving into full-rate production, the service announced.
A Defense Acquisition Board reviewed the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2 program in May, deemed it the program mature and granted approval. That means the Army may buy and field it to the remaining Army units due to receive the system through 2028, according to an Army news release.
WIN-T Increment 2 provides mobile communications, mission command and situational awareness, essentially a command post on the move. Soldiers down to the company level, operating in remote and challenging terrain, would use it to maintain voice, video and data communications.
Development within the program continues, according to Paul Mehney, a spokesman for Program Executive Office Command, Control Communications-Tactical. The program will continue to upgrade and simplify WIN-T Increment 2 capability through technical refreshment and engineering change proposals, according to Paul Mehney said.
Already integrated into mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles and Humvees, US troops in Afghanistan used it to stay connected in remote areas, particularly as fixed-network infrastructure was dismantled and forward-operating bases closed down during retrograde operations.
WIN-T Increment 2 has been fielded to 12 brigades and four division headquarters: the 10th Mountain, the 82nd Airborne, 101st Airborne, the 2nd Infantry and the 1st Armored divisions.
The Pentagon signaled in March that increments 2 and 3 would be partially combined and reduced after the quantity of Increment 2 nodes was cut and the procurement schedule was extended by two years. A year ago, the Army decided to defer Increment 3, the network's aerial tier, due to fiscal constraints.
E-mail: jgould@defensenews.com
Twitter: @reporterjoe
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
