Army readies deployable comms for first responders

Major natural disasters present first responders with many challenges, one of the most critical being lack of communications due to damaged or destroyed infrastructure. This can delay effective search and rescue operations and coordination between various participating organizations. The U.S. Army National Guard wants to avoid this situation in the future by deploying a new system that uses military-grade satellite communications to connect on-site responders with state and federal authorities while also providing local fire and police units with interoperable radio links.

The Disaster Incident Response Emergency Communications Terminal (DIRECT) is designed to support the National Guard and first responders in areas without any communications infrastructure. Inspiration for the system came from experiences supporting recovery operations for hurricanes Katrina and Sandy where the extensive destruction made it difficult to establish communications and then coordinate relief efforts, explained Lt. Col. Mark Henderson, project manager for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 1.
Built around the Army’s WIN-T system, DIRECT allows first responders to tap into the WIN-T’s prodigious satellite bandwidth and connect to internet, radio and cellular communications networks.

“Essentially, now they [first responders] can access a Joint Network Node and the rest of the WIN-T network via satellite connectivity,” Henderson said.

The system consists of both hardware and software. Besides the WIN-T Joint Network Node and satellite communications trailer, the system includes radio-bridging and voice cross-matching equipment, as well as a deployable tower to provide a local Wi-Fi and 4G LTE node. Hardware supporting these additional capabilities is stored in man-portable cases that can be transported in the back of a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) or pickup truck. The entire system can be set up in about an hour, although Henderson notes that the exact time depends on the local situation.

One of DIRECT’s key capabilities is to cross-connect a variety of wireless devices, such as police radios and smartphones, Henderson said. The system can support up to 150 users in and around a command center, depending on spectrum and bandwidth allocation.

“In an area where there is no infrastructure anymore, you’re going to have a node that can communicate back into the WIN-T network, and on the ground you’ve got a very robust capability to connect civil authorities, Guard and first responders to provide humanitarian support and assistance,” he said.

DIRECT allows these different groups to interoperate at a disaster site.

“Now you can have police talking to the National Guard, you can have firefighters talking to civil authorities. You can turn multiple individual nets into a command and communications network,” Henderson said.
Even under normal operating conditions, police and firefighters from different counties or municipal jurisdictions often have trouble communicating with each other because of different equipment and radio frequencies. DIRECT allows different first responder, National Guard, state and federal organizations to communicate with each other. For example, a military radio can be linked to firefighters’ radios and police officers’ cellphones, he said.

This radio cross-talk is facilitated by the case-mounted equipment that is part of the DIRECT system. The case can accommodate two different types of radios, which are plugged in at different sides of the device. Software in the system then translates the radio frequencies to facilitate communications between the two systems.

Communications and internet security is provided via the WIN-T node and network. Army network administrators can log in and assign privileges to participating users and groups, he said. This allows operating groups and networks of first responders/users to be quickly set up during a situation and then be shut down/disbanded once the situation is over.

To help facilitate the deployment of DIRECT, the Army upgraded the Regional Hub Nodes (RHN) that support WIN-T communications. Located across the globe, RHNs are a major part of the WIN-T system. DIRECT also replaces the Army National Guard’s Joint Incident Site Communications Capability (JISCC). Although it was a useful system, Army officials note that JISCC does not allow the military and first responders to communicate with each other over the WIN-T system.

Work on DIRECT began in 2014 with a demonstration of the system’s capabilities to support National Guard operations. The Army plans to field DIRECT to all 50 states, the District of Colombia and territories with National Guard units. Fielding is scheduled to begin in fiscal 2017.
The response to DIRECT from first responders has been overwhelmingly positive, Henderson said. Feedback from recent events, such as a multi-organization risk-reduction exercise that took place in Delaware in August, indicates there is a need for both connectivity and interoperability between participating groups. He notes that emergency responders were especially impressed with DIRECT’s ability to seamlessly link different types of radios and wireless devices to each other in a single network.

Henderson considers DIRECT important because it is intended to support relief operations at home.

“I think this is kind of special to a lot of people because we do a lot of things in support of the war fighter, but this is something that we’re doing that’s in support of our homeland. So in other words, we don’t have to necessarily deploy to use this capability,” he said.