Paratroopers Pioneer New Army Network, Tactics

The first thing you notice about the Army’s new tactical radios is how much clearer everyone sounds.

“When the network is connected … the clarity of the communication and the clarity of the transmission are better than what I would use to hear via FM,” said Lt. Col. Andy Harris. “When everything is connected and it’s working … it’s very, very good quality. And to me that matters, as a commander, because you need to know what they’re saying.”

But, Harris and Army procurement officials told me, the network upgrade – called Capability Set 21 – has a steep learning curve, which means that troops require both technical training and tactical adaption to get the most out of it.

In fact, when the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne parachuted into the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk for wargames in March, not every commander felt comfortable bringing the newly issued kit, which they were the first brigade in the Army to get. But the battalion Harris commands, the 1st Battalion of the storied 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, had extra experience with the new HMS Manpack and Leader radios, having run the program’s official Operational Test back in January.

“We were very, very comfortable with that system,” Harris told me. “The rest of the brigade was not.”
One big issue with the new radios? Battery life. The increased capabilities come with increased power draw, and many officer felt they couldn’t burden their paratroopers with weight of backup batteries in the crucial 72 hours after landing.

Army acquisition officials told me they’re already working on battery life improvements, as well as streamlined cabling (the current cables tend to snag on brush), simplified network management software, and more in-depth training in how to use Capability Set 21 to the fullest.

Once you know how to use the network, Harris said, the benefits are dramatic. Not only are voice calls much clearer – a vital consideration when relaying life or death messages on noisy battlefields – they can boast much longer ranges as well.

That can be crucial in combat. For example, when the next wave of reinforcements was delayed three hours, the brigade support battalion commander could call Harris and warn him from Alexandria airport, 45 km (28 miles) away. That wouldn’t have been possible with traditional radios, Harris said. Troops would have had to reply on specialized satellite communications kit and prearranged access to busy SATCOM channels. But the HMS Manpack radio can access the new MUOS constellation, which is much less overtaxed and readily available.
But the HMS radios don’t need a satellite to talk at ranges well beyond what traditional FM is capable of. Traditional analog radio communications are point to point: If radio A is too far from radio B, or if the direct path between them is blocked by hills, tall buildings, or other obstacles, they just can’t talk to one another. But the new digital radios, using the TSM waveform, create what’s called a Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET), in which every radio acts as a relay for every other. So while radio A and radio Z might be out of range, or on opposite sides of a mountain, the message will bounce around from A to B to C to D to E, ad infinitum, until it finally find a path to Z.

Even when the connection is too tenuous for a voice call, the HMS radios can still send text messages and automatic data updates, like the real-time position of friendly troops on a digital map. As Harris and his brigade commander moved out in opposite directions, he said, they dropped out of voice communications, but they could still see the locations of each other’s troops and text reports on the progress of their attack. By contrast, sending text and data isn’t an option at all on analog radios.