En Pine Barrens en el sur de Nueva Jersey, este verano, cient\u00edficos e ingenieros se congregaron para experimentar con tecnolog\u00edas de comunicaci\u00f3n destinadas a reforzar las capacidades del Ej\u00e9rcito de EE. UU. en terrenos dif\u00edciles, donde concretamente existen importantes obst\u00e1culos y en muchos casos no habr\u00e1 l\u00ednea de vista. La red de niveles a\u00e9reos, uno de las docenas de enfoques en el experimento, garantiza la conectividad mediante el uso de activos a\u00e9reos como drones para superar grandes obst\u00e1culos que impiden la propagaci\u00f3n de la se\u00f1al, incluidas monta\u00f1as y edificios, como una alternativa a los sat\u00e9lites.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 The Jersey Devil, a legendary creature believed by some to inhabit the remote Pine Barrens in southern New Jersey, is said to communicate using a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream.<\/p>\n
This summer, scientists and engineers descended on the area, not to hunt for the mythical beast, but to experiment with communication technologies meant to reinforce U.S. Army capabilities in difficult terrain.<\/p>\n
Officials said weeks of testing at the fourth annual\u00a0Network Modernization Experiment<\/a>, or NetModX, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst brought the service\u2019s aerial tier network one step closer to reality, where it could be used to bounce battlefield information across valleys, neighborhoods and other isolated areas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really saw how the aerial tier could extend our network, but we wanted to do some further evaluations,\u201d Army Brig. Gen. Jeth Rey, director of the Network Cross-Functional Team, told reporters July 21. \u201cNetModX and EDGE were really able to help us in that, and now we\u2019re going to introduce it back into Project Convergence 22, which will allow us to potentially take it further and get it into the hands of our soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n Aerial tier networking \u2014 one of dozens of focuses at the experiment \u2014 ensures connectivity by using airborne assets such as drones to overcome large, signal-impeding obstacles including mountains and buildings. Unlike satellites,\u00a0which take time to arrange<\/a>\u00a0and can be jammed or destroyed, aerial tier gear can be deployed quickly overhead when and where soldiers need it, providing a critical link to friendly forces.<\/p>\n The Army is investing in the aerial tier network as the U.S. postures itself for larger-scale fights with world powers, the sort of conflicts that spread troops out and demand rapid information sharing. To that end, the Army has identified network modernization as one of six pressing priorities; others include long-range precision fires, air-and-missile defense and next-generation combat vehicles.<\/p>\n The location of NetModX, amid countless trees\u00a0and other challenging landscapes<\/a>, provided real-world conditions that the research community and industry leveraged. Realistic data and insights, officials said, are paramount to developing technologies best suited for a future fight.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve told my team that we don\u2019t need to test where everything\u2019s wide open and flat because we need to test operationally, where we think we might be,\u201d said James Tucker Swindell, chief of the radio frequency communications division at the C5ISR Center. \u201cIf you pull up your Google Maps and you look around the world, there are a lot of trees, a lot of foliage, and that can be very temperamental when it comes to specific frequencies in the RF spectrum.\u201d<\/p>\n Among\u00a0the C5ISR Center\u2019s interests<\/a>\u00a0at NetModX was the Relay for Aerial to Non-line-of-sight Ground Environment, or RANGE, a science-and-technology program aimed at creating a \u201ctransformative tactical radio relay capability,\u201d according to Swindell.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re pushing for high throughput non-line-of-sight tactical comms, providing resilient options for communications-denied environments, all while incorporating the modular form factor for\u201d unmanned aircraft systems, he said. \u201cThe reason why we\u2019re doing that is if we build it for a UAS, when you need to scale it up for manned aircraft, it\u2019s a lot easier to go that direction than the reverse.\u201d<\/p>\n The RANGE team is working intimately with the\u00a0Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team<\/a>\u00a0to study and connect unmanned and other aerial systems to boots on ground.<\/p>\n At last year\u2019s Project Convergence, a comprehensive exercise that contributes to Joint All-Domain Command and Control, a small drone was used to pass on communications and maintain contact. The Army hailed it as a success.<\/p>\n \u201cThat aerial tier will thicken and extend our network, our communications,\u201d\u00a0Rey said<\/a>, \u201cand improve the range and resilience of our network across the board.\u201d<\/p>\n