MTS: an untold commo success story in OIF

FA Journal, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Jeffrey J. Hilt, Ronald L. Jones

"Contact right! Contact right! AK47 and RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] fire from behind the berm on the right!" came screaming across the battery net.

This southbound convoy transporting hundreds of tons of captured enemy ammunition (CEA) was being attacked with RPGs, small arms fire and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), destroying one trailer and damaging another.

The insurgents fled when engaged by a fusillade of small arms fire from the escort vehicles and gun trucks; however, an unexploded 122-mm IED lay next to the road near a burning trailer with its load of ammunition "cooking off," blocking the route. No casualties were sustained during this attack.

"Call Sheriff and notify battalion, ASAP!" were the instructions given to the convoy commander's driver. Using the military's version of "dial 9-1-1" on FM, call sign "Sheriff" (monitored by the Military Police responsible for route security), the driver attempted to contact the police and get explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel to the scene. But because the convoy was in the middle of the desert in the Sunni Triangle some 100 kilometers south of Baghdad, the driver could not reach Sheriff, who was out of FM communications range. The only other unit within FM range was a sister battery heading north along the same route that also had no communications with higher.

The driver then attempted to call Sheriff on the Thuraya cell phone, but the phone could not find a signal because that area of the desert had no coverage. How was the convoy going to get EOD on the scene to neutralize the IED and engineer elements there to clear the route?

Luckily, this convoy had the movement tracking system (MTS). MTS, a system designed to maintain visibility of resupply over long distances, allows the vehicle in which it is installed to track and communicate with other MTS vehicles, sending real-time, two-way communications via satellites. It can communicate over a broad range of satellite systems while using National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) digital maps. MTS encrypts the address information and the message data from both sender and receiver.

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Using MTS plain text messaging, the convoy sent a nine-line unexploded ordnance (UXO) report and situation report (SITREP) to the battalion head-quarters, which in turn transmitted it to Sheriff using both digital non-secure voice telephone (DNVT) and FM. The local quick reaction force (QRF) and EOD were dispatched and arrived at the scene in time for the convoy to move to a safe laager area for the night, removing 29 contracted civilian trucks loaded with CEA out of harms' way.

Unfortunately, attacks such as the one we just described happen repeatedly throughout the Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations (AOR) since the Coalition Forces entered Iraq.

Our battalion mandated convoys carry redundant means of communications: FM radios with battery and battalion command, Sheriff and medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) frequencies loaded at all times; Iridium satellite phones; Thuraya cell phones; and tactical satellite (TACSAT) phones. But MTS was the most dependable means of communications we had. It never failed us in 12 months of combat.

Originally, the system was installed in our heavy expanded-mobility tactical trucks (HEMTTs) to track ammunition resupply and movement during high-intensity conflict. However, due to considerations of the mission, enemy, terrain, troops and time available and civilians on the battlefield (METT-TC), we could not always employ HEMTTs in our assigned missions. With that limitation, battalion directed we remove a number of the MTS and install them into our high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV) gun trucks to maintain crucial command and control ([C.sup.2]) of our convoys.

Multiple Uses for MTS. In the majority of cases, MTS was our convoy's primary and, sometimes, our only way to contact Sheriff and our battalion head-quarters. We used it to communicate with higher for [C.sup.2] of our convoy and to call the QRF, MEDEVACs for Soldiers and Iraqi civilians, the engineers to clear roads and for the locations of safe laager areas when our convoys were delayed.

While escorting and hauling hundreds of tons of CEA and other explosives, our battalion was able to pass on the latest intelligence and instructions to convoys hundreds of kilometers away, thereby allowing the convoys to bypass or avoid routes blocked by IED attacks.

In one case, a convoy of 30 trucks avoided a four-hour traffic jam caused by multiple unexploded IEDs on the highway through downtown Baghdad because of a timely MTS message. The convoy was hauling 1,000-kilogram bombs from Taji and bypassed the situation via an alternate route around Baghdad.

MTS helped convoys receive maintenance and recovery assets or trouble-shooting advice to recover and (or) repair broken-down vehicles. This system also allowed us to notify higher of what Class IX and petroleum, oil and lubricant (POL) products the convoy would require upon its return, thereby, reducing the amount of time it took to bring the convoy up to fully mission capable (FMC) status and back into operation.