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More than 140 personnel from 10 NATO and Partnership for Peace
countries converged on Eagle Base, Tuzla in Bosnia-Herzegovina in May
with one mission: to conduct safe interoperability testing and document
the results.
The exercise, called Combined Endeavor, was the largest communications
interoperability exercise in the world, comprised of more than 40
nations from four continents totaling more than 1,200 participants. It
is important because future European theater operations will require
multi-national communications and interoperability to achieve success.
Since its inception in 1995, this is the third year where CE integrated
a forward operating site outside of Germany into their test plan, and
Ramstein’s 1st Combat Communications Squadron was there to support each
effort.
Integrating a forward site into the test plan mirrors what a
multi-national coalition may face during humanitarian, disaster relief
or peacekeeping
operations.
This year, the 1st CBCS deployed 39 people and, together with a support
staff from various units throughout U.S. Air Forces in Europe, they
were crucial to accomplishing the mission. With a dual role of
support and testing, they ran phones for more than 140 personnel and
equipped 10 delegations and their representatives with state-of-the-art
wireless network access and the CE Planning Tracking and Reporting tool
used to schedule tests and document results.
Using wireless technology in the field was a first for the squadron and
a USAFE proof of concept which could potentially save thousands of
dollars in material and man hours. Normally designed for a
fixed-base environment, the 1st CBCS took the first generation wireless
system and married it with their deployable data package, proving its
ability to operate in field conditions.
“Integrating wireless into deployable packages decreases pallet space,
weight requirements and man hours previously dedicated to running
cable,” said Airman Christopher Sterbank, 1st CBCS Computer Systems
Operator.
They also deployed two satellite communication terminals. One
provided a real world link into the Defense Integrated Services Network
cloud for Defense Switched Network and Internet connectivity and the
other link provided an impressive 6MB of bandwidth on a 2.4 meter dish
to the CE Main Operating Site in Baumholder for CEPTR access.
With Mannheim’s 5th Signal Battalion as the distant end, establishing
and maintaining this link was truly a joint effort.
However, none of this would be possible without reliable power.
Serving ten nations, each with their own power requirements and
configurations, presented a challenge. As liaison between the
Eagle Base Area Service Team and the CE participants, the 1st CBCS
ensured the right kind of power was available for each delegation upon
arrival.
Their role in testing was just as important. They conducted more than
65 tests with other delegations. Serving as the lead nation
for data transfer services testing at the forward site meant they
provided network security, Web services and the external router for the
Georgian, French and Croatian delegations.
“This was the perfect opportunity for us to test our E-1 capability,”
said Staff Sgt. Jason Bass, 1st CBCS voice technician. “We tested
with every nation here and it worked great.”
