Brigade Task Force communicates in OEF: in the Afghanistan environment, with many mountains and low grounds coupled with the harsh weather and environment, the segment was key to the fighter's success

Army Communicator, Spring, 2004 by Michael P. Martel

Another big success was the ForceXXI Battlefield Command Brigade and Below system. The FBCB2 was a system that included a monitor, keyboard, processor and transceiver. It provided situational awareness through a map on the screen showing your location along with the location of other units and any graphics. FBCB2 communicates over satellites and gives the user the ability to send messages to any other user in the network. These systems were mounted in vehicles and helicopters. TOCs could see a unit's movement, as well as, send messages to them for command and control or logistics. As Ground Assault Convoys became more common, this system was relied on more heavily. TOCs could track their movements. Supply messages were sent instead of tying up airtime on a command net. There were even several cases when the primary means of communications failed and the only means to communicate was passing messages over the FBCB2.

Mobile Transmitter was a system similar to FBCB2. The MTX was a system used for dismounts. It consisted only of a small box with an antenna placed on the carrier. Units with access to the Global Command and Control System feed were able to see the movement of the Soldiers. This system did not pass traffic back and forth. It only passed its location up. Initial problems receiving the GCCS feed prevented the brigade from using the system. However, special operations units used them routinely. The brigade was later able to pull the GCCS feed onto their Maneuver Control System-Light and see both the FBCB2 and MTX on the same picture.

The Global Broadcast Suite was used to pull the Predator feeds and CNN. We did not use the full suite of services. The system itself was very reliable and took minimal effort to maintain once it was working properly.

Voice over IP was also used minimally. Very few phones were available as well as only one server. The service itself was very clear but degraded quickly as the network got bogged down with its limited bandwidth. The KG-175s as mentioned before were very successful and required very little maintenance.

Armed Forces Network, although not a new system, was new to some of us maintaining it. The AFN is usually run by trained personnel but was put in the hands of untrained Soldiers at many remote sites. They soon had to become experts or suffer the complaints of fellow Soldiers hungry for a piece of back home and entertainment.

Key drives or pen drives were hugely successful. They largely replaced disk drives as a transportable storage medium. Floppy 3.5 inch disk drives wouldn't last long in the heat and extremely dusty conditions in most locations. Key drives were easier to transport, held more data and every computer had USB port. Unit Level Logistics System computers suffered the most without the ability to use the new storage medium.

The Gavin Gator was a concept to take a John Deere Gator all-terrain vehicle and mount communications systems on it. Single channel TACSATs, FMs and HF radios were mounted on the back with amps and a generator for power. The vehicle would then have the ability to be floor loaded in a CH-47 and brought to any objective with the Soldiers. This would give a mobile and stable C2 platform. This was an excellent concept mounted on the wrong vehicle. The Gators could not handle the loads. They became too heavy and would not make it up the smallest hills. They were soon left behind. The concept is still very good, but another vehicle is needed for transport.