Thursday, August 2, 2018 • APG News B7

DID YOU KNOW?

The invasion was a two-day operation that resulted in the seven-month-long

Iraqi occupation of the country. Iraq’s refusal to withdraw from Kuwait led to

military intervention by a United Nations-authorized coalition of forces led by

the United States. These events resulted in the expulsion of Iraqi forces from

Kuwait. Reasons for the invasion varied. It was known that Iraq was having

trouble repaying Kuwait the $14 billion it borrowed to finance the Iran-Iraq war.

In addition, Iraq could not compete with Kuwait’s high petroleum production

levels and seeming indifference to Iraqi aggressive action by world leaders prior

to the invasion “green lighted” invasion plans for Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein.

Within two days after the Aug. 2 invasion, most of the Kuwait Armed Forces

were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or fell back to neighboring

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Iraq set up a puppet government known as the

“Republic of Kuwait” to rule over Kuwait and then annexed it outright, when

Saddam Hussein announced a few days later that it was the 19th province of

Iraq.

Despite the international outcry and condemnation, Hussein refused to

budge and a punishing barrage from coalition air forces began Jan. 15, 1991. The

air war devastated Iraqi forces and the following ground war finished off what

the air war started. Forced to withdraw, the Iraqis set more than 600 Kuwaiti oil

wells on fire during their retreat.

During the Iraqi occupation, with Kuwaiti leaders in exile, more than 1,000

Kuwaiti citizens who joined the resistance movement were imprisoned or

executed by the Iraqis and more than 300,000 Kuwaiti’s fled the country.

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwaiti_oil_fires.

U.S. Air Force jets fly over burning oil wells in Kuwait. Iraqi forces set more than 600 wells

on fire as they retreated in defeat at the end of the first Gulf War.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA.ORG

The Invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, setting upthe first Gulf War, occurred 28 years agoon Aug. 2, 1990.

Thethreevariationsof theCPDScurrentlybeing evaluated are smaller and simpler touse,weigh less, andrequire less space to storeor set up, officials said. Projectors are alsoequipped with long-life LEDs to reduce theneed tooverstockandreplace lightbulbs.

Soldiers are also field testing short-throwprojectors that need to be offset by only 18inches fromthe screen togenerate a100-inchimage.

The 1st Armored Division Artillery isscheduled to experimentwith the CPDS thissummer, officials added. Both the 11th Ar-moredDivisionArtillery and the1stArmoredDivision will help inform program require-ments and capabilities for future displaytechnology.

TheUnifiedVoiceManagementSystem,orUVMS, rounds out EMC STO’s equipmentpackageportfolio.

Currently, Soldiers supporting themissioncommand and command post infrastructurehave to operate through a wide range ofseparate communications technologies. Ad-ditionally, these systems cannot cross-com-municate unless they are integrated with achannel access unit, or CAU, which addsweight and an additional space requirementtoacommandpost location.

The UVMS is a prototype equipmentpackage that was designed to provide aninteroperable solution for radio, digital tele-phones, and other computer-based or voicesoftwareapplications.

Overall, the UVMS has demonstrated thebenefitsofafully interoperablecapabilitythatenables seamless voice communications re-gardless of the devices or applications,officials said. The 173rd Airborne BrigadeCombat Team in a forward-deployed coali-tionenvironment is currently field testing thenewequipment.

Tactical computingenvironment

The tactical computing environment, orTCE, was another focus area for CERDECwhen working to improve command postcapabilities. The TCE enables mission com-mand through a visual representation of a

near real-time common operating pictureacross a battlefield or training environment,officials said.

The TCE is an interwoven network ofmobile and desktop-based devices, whichreceive information from several real-timeArmydata feeds tohelpcreateacollaborativeexperience for commanders and their staff,said Cyndi Carpenter, with the MissionCommandCapabilitiesDivisionatCERDEC.

DeviceswithinTCEcanoperate indiscon-nected, interrupted, and low-bandwidth en-vironments and communicate through theSoldier Radio Waveform, Ethernet, Wi-Fi,and4GLTEnetworks, officials said.

Currently, observers, coaches, and trainers,or OC/Ts, at the National Training Center inFort Irwin, California, have been using theTCE to provide an exercise-control commonoperatingpictureduring training rotations.

TCE-enabled tablets provide a wide arrayof features to help Soldiers collaborate andincrease situational awareness, said Sgt. 1st

ClassSheenaFerrell,whoisassignedtoOC/TCobra3Aat theNTC.

For example, Ferrell said the systemidentifies units by military map symbols,which can be user-entered or trackedthrough TCE or blue force monitoringdevices. The library of map nomenclaturebuilt into the system can also be used tomapthe locationof enemyunits.

Likewise, the TCE also has a free-drawfeature, allowing OC/Ts to input obstacles,boundaries, troop movements, and otherinformation. TCE-enabled devices can sharescreens inacollaborationmodeorwithotherindividual devices, and also provide trainerswith chat, photo, and file sharing features,Ferrell said.

SMASHIn an effort to improve TCE’s accessibility

to make it easier for Soldiers to use in anyenvironment, CERDEC has been developing

the Single Multimodal Android Service forHuman Computer Interaction tool, or HCISMASH.

By incorporating automatic speech recog-nition software that interacts with the TCE,HCI SMASH allows Soldiers to navigate orinput information into the system using onlytheir voice, said Dan Lenhardt, lead HCISMASHengineer.

“Most of our focus is all mounted anddismounted capabilities,” Lenhardt said. “So,[we’re] trying tomakesystemsuse forunits tousewhileon themove.”

The HCI SMASH software is fully inte-grated into TCE-enabled devices, which is acore difference when you compare SMASHto other commercial capabilities, Lenhardtsaid. By incorporating SMASH, it eliminatesthe need for the software to reach back to aserver, similar to what an Amazon or Googledevicemightdo.

Energy informedoperationsRounding out CERDEC’s technology im-

provements for command posts is an inte-grated software and hardware power systemapplication with built-in intelligence that iscapable of prioritizing power resources ac-cording tomissionneeds, officials said.

“The challenge we have today is, how doweenable the Soldier tomove at the speedofbattlewiththeircurrentpowersolution,[and]how do they maintain it wherever they are,regardless of their expertise?” said MichaelGonzalez, the CERDEC lead for energyinformedoperations.

The EIO program incorporates a tacticalmicrogrid system that allows personnel tomonitor and manage their power systemsinteractively. The microgrid’s internal soft-ware andalgorithms arebuilt into the systemto control the different power and distribu-tionsources,whiletheuserinterfaceprovidesSoldierswithsituationalawareness,Gonzalessaid.

Overall, the smart system is said to reducethe number of generators, fuel usage, andoverloads.

Eventually, the goal of EIO is to make thepowernetworkmore “plug andplay,”Gonza-les said. In turn,EIO is looking intonewwaysto integrate nontraditional power sourcesseamlessly -- like commercial generators orvehicles -- to provide Soldiers with efficientandreliablepower.

The Light-Mobile Command Post node provides a self-contained, rapidly mobile command post node that can be used as a small and highly capable mission command vehicle to sup-

port light Infantry, Airmobile, and Air Assault forces.

U.S. ARMY PHOTO

COMPUTINGFrom page B5

The Tactical Computing Environment is an interwoven network of mobile and desktop-

based devices, which receive information from several real-time Army data feeds to help

create a collaborative experience for commanders and their staff.

U.S. ARMY PHOTO