Navy Equipment Made A Difference

Austin Bay posts about "the best use of military assets in responding to domestic natural disaster:

Within 24 hours of the call, a 30-man team from the Naval Surface Warfare Center moved the multimillion-dollar communications facility from the base to Naval Air Station New Orleans, where it was up and running Sept. 11. It is currently being used to manage the massive relief and recovery effort that spans from the Mississippi River delta to South Alabama.

[. . .]

DJC2 was designed to give the major regional military commanders a robust, rapidly deployable “system of systems” to enable different military commands and services to function as a seamless joint task force team during major military crises, officials say. Fully fielded, DJC2 includes an independent power supply, shelters and a wide array of voice and digital communications gear ranging from top secret secure Internet and tactical satellite communications to radio transmitters capable of interfacing with civilian communications networks.

It is amazing that such a system, still under development, could moved so quickly. Even more amazing is the fact that different military commands and services still have need to have such a system "under development." I thought that would have been addressed long ago. The need to do so was made more than abundantly clear during the 1979 Grenada invasion.

Comments

[Ted]

Back in the 80's (USAF) I worked on a deployable logistics computer network. This was when PC's were rare. The whole thing could be loaded onto one pallet, with a second pallet carrying the generator, which could run on mogas, diesel or even grain alcohol (IIRC). The idea was kind of a logistical M*A*S*H setup, close to the front lines. The biggest problem found during testing was that in the documentation we forgot to include instructions to make sure the generator stayed gassed up.

[SGT Jeff (IRR)]

Isn't it amazing that this system is an improvement and consolidation of so many other systems that are already fielded and working?

Comms tends to accrete to the edges of things. Eventually the signals guys figure out that other people are horning in on their territory and make a move to 1. consolidate it back under their control and 2. get more funding to do so.

Business as usual.