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FAS Project on Intelligence Reform

Top Hunter
Team Portable Comint Systems (TPCS)

The Marine Corps must be able dominate the information war in all aspects including the ability to defeat the enemies use of information. To ensure dominance in the information war the Marine Corps' Radio Battalions must have the resources to exploit, locate and conduct electronic attack operations against enemy information systems. Marine Corps signals intelligence (SIGINT) improvements include the radio reconnaissance equipment program SIGINT suite-1, the technical control and analysis center (TCAC), the testing of improvements to the mobile electronic warfare support system (MEWSS), and the team portable communication intelligence system (TPCS).

The Information Warfare project will work with the following programs; the NSA 'Top Hunter' Joint Program Office for the USMC TPCS and the Navy Information Warfare Activity (NIWA) to develop Information Warfare technologies (Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and electronic attack) that can be demonstrated within the Radio Battalion concept of operations and field environment. The expected payoff of this project is the successful introduction of new technology into the Radio Battalions suite of sensor and weapon systems. The Army's AN/PRD-12 TEAMMATE has been procured for use in the Marine Corps Top Hunter System.

Current TCAC capabilities do not meet the demanding requirements of the Operations Control and Analysis Center (OCAC) for automated information processing. As more automated and semi-automated SIGINT systems are fielded, such as Mobile Electronic Warfare Support System (MEWSS), Joint Tactical Terminal (JTT), Team Portable Communications Intelligence System (TPCS), it will be increasingly more difficult for the current TCAC to perform its mission. The TCAC PIP will dramatically increase the joint and service interoperability capabilities of the OCAC and other Radio Battalion detachments.

Several Operational Requirements Documents (ORD) and Mission Need Statements (MNS) have been approved or are in draft form that discuss the need to improve upon the Radio Battalions' capability. This program will develop technologies that do not presently exist in the Radio Battalion inventory nor planned as upgrades to existing systems. Technological areas selected for study and demonstration will be approached in a manner to aid integration with existing Radio Battalion systems.

The Applied Research Laboratory (ARL, University of Texas at Austin) and Digital Access Corporation, under the direction of SPAWARSYSCEN, will conduct an analysis of a Team Portable Comint Systems (TPCS) which will be aided by Time Difference of Arrival Geolocation (TDOA) measurements. ARL will develop and produce a near real-time PC based TDOA measurement system and Digital Access Corporation will aid in integrating that capability with TPCS. An initial prototype of the system, capable of transferring/receiving time series data across TPCS's digital LAN, will be demonstrated to the USMC Radio Battalion's in FY00. The demonstration system will be capable of fielding TDOA augmentation to four TPCS out stations.

SPAWARSYSCEN will develop the physical configuration and provide the COTS equipment for performing Mobile Direction Finding in a standard HMMWV. The physical configuration will include work sites for two operators and a supervisor in the vehicle's existing seats. The antennas and sensor suite will be mounted on a snap on shelter developed under another MARCORSYSCOM program (appears identical to the standard HMMWV canvas cover but has fiberglass support and a ground plane present). The Mobile Direction Finding capability will interface or make use of TPCS's scanning receiver and digital local area network. Digital Access Corporation will perform the integration into these TPCS functions. The MDF system will be prototyped for demonstration purposes and then delivered to a USMC Radio Battalion for operational feedback. This effort will demonstrate outstanding requirements for TPCS to perform operations on the move.

This planned operational tests of the upgraded TPCS program will provide an excellent opportunity to conduct a demonstration of the two technologies under development. The S&T programs will coordinate directly with the TPCS program manager to assure that the S&T development integrate seamlessly into their operational systems. The MFD capability is scheduled to transition in FY00 and the TDOA capability in FY01.

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Created by John Pike
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Updated Friday, April 14, 2000 2:39:36 PM