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	Director, Operational Test & Evaluation
	FY99 Annual Report

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2010

The Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) will be the Army's upper tactical Intranet from the theater and sustaining base to the maneuver battalions in the field. WIN-T will replace both aging Tri-Services Tactical Communications and Mobile Subscriber Equipment. The major WIN-T elements are network infrastructure, network management, information assurance software, and user interfaces that provide voice, data, and video services. The network infrastructure consists of integrated switching, routing, and transport capabilities. The four major WIN-T elements, when integrated with the Army's Tactical Internet, form the Army's Tactical Intranet. WIN-T will enhance network management capabilities provided by the Integrated System Control and build on these capabilities as the objective WIN-T architecture matures.

WIN-T will provide wired and wireless communications for voice, data, and video by relying on commercial products and technologies. It will support multiple security levels from Unclassified to Top Secret/SCI. It will operate in the tactical environment and is required to be mobile, secure, and survivable. It will integrate terrestrial, airborne, and satellite-based transport capabilities into a network infrastructure to provide connectivity across an extended battlespace. Network management and Wide Area Network coverage capabilities will be deployed by signal units to enable the combat forces freedom of maneuver across large areas of operation with dispersed forces. WIN-T is an enabler to gaining information superiority, and will integrate legacy and future networks into the Army's Intranet.

The WIN architecture was approved in January 1996, and the first draft Operational Requirements Document was approved by the Army's Signal Center in April 1998. The WIN-T Acquisition Strategy was drafted in July 1998. The WIN-T program was placed on the pre-MDAP list in November 1998. The Program Office began OSD briefs in early 1999 and Integrated Product Team meetings commenced in May 1999.

Operational test and evaluation strategies have not been finalized. The Operational Requirements Document and the Critical Operational Issues and Criteria are still in draft form. IOT&E is being planned for 4QFY03, which will employ a battalion set of equipment in a division-sized operational test. This IOT&E will include the communication assets needed to support a deployed division and be able to determine if WIN-T is operationally effective and suitable. A Product Assurance technical test is planned to precede IOT&E by one year, and will be conducted on a subset of the same production representative hardware used in IOT&E.

No technical or operational testing has occurred. Operational test strategies are currently being developed.