07:13 GMT, July 5, 2010 NORFOLK, Va. | U.S. Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) communicators recently participated in a three-week exercise that focused on tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP) that will improve joint and coalition communications abilities.

The Joint Users Interoperability Communications Exercise (JUICE), an annual event sponsored by USJFCOM and the Executive Agent Theater Joint Tactical Network, was held at Fort Monmouth, N.J., and various other locations June 7-25. Participants from the services, U.S. Northern Command, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Justice and the National Guard joined with USJFCOM and - for the first time - coalition partners to test and standardize those TTPs in multilateral environments.

John Bowling, chief of USJFCOM's Net-Enabled Transport, Communications and Integration Branch, Command, Control, Communications and Computer Systems Directorate (J6), said JUICE looks at interoperability issues at the joint task force (JTF) level.

"How can we improve our TTPs to make our comms more interoperable in a JTF environment?" he asked. "It's focused around a Joint On-Demand Interoperability Network, hooked up to several test labs, that simulates a JTF network. If someone wants to do an assessment of their equipment, it's available from their home network."

This year's JUICE had several objectives, but Bowling and his deputy, Army Lt. Col. Joseph Berry Jr., focused on three in particular:

• Validation of TTPs for a joint network operations control center (JNCC)
• Placing secure and non-secure phone calls between coalition partners
• Placing voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone calls across tactical networks

JNCCs already have a construct concerning the number of staff and skill sets needed to man them, but when particular billets are filled by members of different services, they bring different training and experience with them, Bowling said. At JUICE, TTPs were tested that will standardize what warfighters from any service will need for success.

"That gives it a joint flavor as opposed to one that's service specific," Berry said. "Services have their different procedures, but we bring them all together to get the best procedures that will work in a joint environment."

Berry said a particular concern is ensuring warfighters who are not communications specialists understand the mission impact regarding "the health and wellness" of the networks they are using, making that information more relevant across commands and JTFs. "We're trying to normalize the health and wellness of our networks," Bowling said.

"'Health and wellness to [communication specialists] means you've got a green network, but when you report that to an operational staff, they have to understand what that means from a mission standpoint."

The second major objective involved representatives from Canada, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany placing calls across each nation's networks. The Coalition Interoperability Communication Exercise was a first for JUICE at this magnitude, which traditionally focuses on joint issues.

"That's key when you're fighting as a coalition like in Afghanistan or Iraq," he said. "You have to be able to exchange information between different partners."

"The reality is when we fight another war or participate in a contingency operation - including humanitarian operations - it's probably always going to be in some kind of coalition or partnership environment," Bowling said.

During JUICE, participants also tested using VoIP capabilities across tactical networks. In the past, VoIP technology has been used within tactical networks like the one used in the Iraqi and Afghanistan theaters of operation, but information assurance concerns restrict it from being used outside those networks, Berry said.

"Right now, you can't take that phone in Iraq and call someone in D.C.," he said. "They're trying to establish a mechanism that will let you do that in an effort to better utilize existing resources."

Results from this exercise will be collected and analyzed to feed into future reports, including a "quick look" report in roughly one month and a final report that will be made available to the Joint Staff after being signed by Air Force Col. David C. Uhrich, USJFCOM J6 director.


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Jacob Boyer
USJFCOM Public Affairs