The Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) was named the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA) 2008 Outstanding U.S. Government Program at its Network Centric Warfare Awards ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, DC, Jan. 23, 2008. The Network Centric Warfare Awards are bestowed annually to honor, recognize and promote initiatives in DOD, coalition governments and the defense industry that exemplify the principles of network-centric warfare and support information age transformation, according to IDGA.

PFC George Dick of the 2-4 Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Infantry Division, operates AFATDS in an exercise at Forward Operating Base Anvil at the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, LA, in August 2007. (U.S. Army photo by Tim Rider.)

“I am proud to say that our team has leaned forward and has taken on the challenges of network-centric warfare to include engaging with Future Combat Systems and Net-Enabled Command Capability to pre-position our program as an integral part of the Army’s Future Force,” Product Director Ted Hom said. “We are leveraging advancements in technology and continue to provide state-of-the-art equipment to our warfighters.” The AFATDS product director reports to the U.S. Army Project Manager Battle Command within the U.S. Army Program Executive Office Command, Control and Communications (C3) Tactical.

Deployed throughout the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, AFATDS is an automated fire support system using 21st-century C3 technology to increase the accuracy of fires and reduce the timeline from the sensing of targets to the delivery of fires. Integrated within the fires components of Joint command centers for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy, as well as the Army, AFATDS is known as a multiservice system.

As the primary fire support system supporting Army battle command, AFATDS provides expert operators and commanders with situational awareness, battle management, target analysis and target engagement tools. It provides fully automated support for planning, coordinating and controlling mortars, field artillery cannons, rockets, guided missiles, close air support, attack helicopter and naval gunfire for close support, counterfire, interdiction, suppression of enemy air defenses and deep operations.

“The extraordinary information requirements required to perform fire support command and control and the sharing of this critical fires information throughout the tactical and operational network directly drive the need for a flexible, robust and networked solution,” said Hom. “That’s what AFATDS provides.”

Over the past 2 years, the AFATDS architecture and suite of software applications has evolved to support DOD’s migration strategy to the net-enabled command capability (NECC), while simultaneously complementing the U.S. Army’s move to consolidate battle command servers and services among its array of the systems. According to Hom, this makes AFATDS a cornerstone program to enable the tenets of net-centric warfare. “The tenets of net-centric warfare are critical to the AFATDS mission due to the complexity of executing scalable precision munitions on the right target at the right time while reducing collateral damage,” said Hom.

The new capabilities implemented within the AFATDS program stress service-oriented architecture, seamless networking and information dominance. This addresses capabilities in the physical, informational and cognitive domains with a common set of capabilities for both NECC and battle command system-of-systems.

AFATDS has been in use during combat operations since the beginning of Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom as the primary system to manage and execute Joint fires (naval, air, cannon, missile, mortar and attack aviation) in support of the land forces commander.

Article courtesy of Fort Monmouth, NJ, Public Affairs Office.