Joint Battle Command – Platform enables rapid situational awareness, according to commanders involved in the live-fire Vanguard Focus exercise. The 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Div. at Ft. Stewart, Georgia, is the first unit to get the system.
"Part of the challenge for a joint forcible entry is gaining and maintain situational awareness, fighting upon entry into an austere environment before you can build normal situational awareness tools," said COL Thomas Gukeisen, commander of the 4th Brigade.
MORE: See video featuring Gukeisen and other JBC-P leaders at our special feature, "Next Generation Situational Awareness."
Setting up long-term situational awareness requires the time and relative peace to build infrastructure components, he said.
"What JBC-P does is bridge that capability until we can get those large infrastructure and satellite communications systems in place," he said.
JBC-P allows soldiers to enter an area and provide situational awareness to brigade headquarters, which helps keep track for where other units are.
Gukeisen said the system has effectively been through the laboratory development phase and some testing, but now that it is going live in the field, the Army can expect feedback based on use and experience. The 4th Brigade is already developing ways to integrate it even more tightly into its operational needs.
"We're looking at what apps we can build, how to modify the system to suit our needs," he said.
