Vital connection further prepares JCSE for disaster relief

  • Published
  • By Whitney Williams
  • U.S. Transportation Command Joint Enabling Capabilities Command lead communications specialist
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  The Joint Communications Support Element sits alert as part of the Global Response Force. In the past, GRF forces have deployed in support of humanitarian disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, Gustav and, more recently, Hurricane Sandy.

Preparation for deployment in support of disaster relief efforts includes participation in exercises. May 15 and 16 members of JCSE deployed to Colorado to provide communication support to U.S. Northern Command's Vital Connection program during an exercise. This program includes a series of three annual exercises held in various states across the nation and is designed to test communications interoperability during domestic emergency or disaster relief operations.

During the exercise, more than 200 participants from local, state and federal agencies assembled at the Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Training Facility in Littleton, Colo. to test the capabilities of their various communications systems during a simulated natural disaster.

USNORTHCOM asked JCSE to participate in this most recent iteration following their successful performance during the first Vital Connection exercise of 2013, which took place at Camp Blanding, Fla. earlier in the year.

"USNORTHCOM was impressed with how quickly the JCSE team was able to bring the equipment up on all services, how quickly we were able to extend services to customers as well as the team's overall knowledge," said Army Sgt. Michael Hope, JCSE team member, who participated during both Vital Connection iterations.

All Vital Connection exercises focus on the same basic concept; a natural disaster in the local area causes all communications, including those of crisis and emergency first responders, to go down. However, the exercises differ in the type and level of support provided by the participating agencies as well as the various injects that are included to further stress and test interoperability.

JCSE, which regularly provides rapidly deployable, en-route, early entry and scalable communications capabilities to combatant commanders across the globe, was responsible for providing commercial Internet, phone, video teleconferencing and radio communications on multiple channels and frequencies to more than 60 personnel from local law enforcement and emergency response teams.

"This exercise was different in the fact that we had to provide a more extensive amount of services to a much larger number of customers," Hope said. "We had to configure our equipment differently than our standard setup, which is something that is completely outside our normal day-to-day range."

JCSE employed their Early Entry Package, a modular, scalable communications system which provides an added flexibility in tailoring communications capabilities to the customer's requirements. As also seen during the previous Vital Connection exercise, the scalable, mobile nature of JCSE's communications packages, proved to be a critical asset to this type of operation.

"JCSE's equipment is extremely relevant due to the fact that we were able to support two different military units on our network while continuing to also provide communications to our primary customers and we were successful in that task," said Hope. "Additionally, the mobility of the Early Entry Package gave us the option of setting up our site anywhere on the training facility, which opened up extra space for other participants."
To add realism to the Vital Connection exercise, USNORTHCOM incorporated injects, which consisted of intermittent power failures, to further validate that JCSE, along with the other participants, are prepared for the unpredictable nature of a disaster relief operation.

"The exercise was realistic in the sense that most of the participants needed our services because their equipment continued to malfunction," Hope explained. "This was very helpful in preparing us for possible real-world operations in the future because each team member was actively engaged in helping multiple customers at any given time during the entire exercise."

Mr. Mark Jensen, a joint interoperability communications planner with USNORTHCOM who coordinates the Vital Connection exercises, was impressed with the support JCSE brought to the exercise and said, "JCSE provided an outstanding effort and engaged in the full spectrum of communications interoperability with fellow military, federal, state and local units to accomplish the exercise objectives."

The goal of Vital Connection was to test the interoperability capabilities between civilian and military agencies and ultimately, provide better communications services to first responders. JCSE was a key factor in meeting that goal and will continue to be a value-added capability that is readily available, if and when disaster strikes. JCSE plans to also participate in the final iteration of the 2013 Vital Connection exercise series in September.