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Blue Ridge Communications Team Excels During Talisman Saber

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS050705-07
Release Date: 7/5/2005 12:12:00 PM

By Journalist Seaman Apprentice Marc Rockwell-Pate, USS Blue Ridge Public Affairs

BRISBANE, Australia (NNS) -- For nearly a month, the communications department of USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), the U.S. 7th Fleet command ship, stepped up their game providing around-the-clock voice, video, data, tactical, network and messaging support and service for exercise Talisman Saber 2005 in June.

Talisman Saber is an exercise jointly sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Command and Australian Defense Force Joint Operations Command. With more than 11,000 U.S. and 6,000 Australian personnel involved, the exercise focused on crisis action planning and execution of contingency response operations. In a real-world scenario exercise, quick and reliable communications are crucial for combined task force commanders to make critical decisions.

U.S. and Australian forces both use different systems for computer communications. Since Blue Ridge is Commander, Combined Task Force (CCTF) Vice Adm. Jonathan Greenert's command and control ship, its communications hub was the focal point of all communications between U.S. and Australian Navy ships involved in the exercise.

“Talisman Saber features a combined exercise with U.S. and Australian forces to fight a war,” said Lt. Kenneth Demick, Blue Ridge communications officer. “With that, they (U.S. and Australian Forces) [needed] command and control, which we provided through our C4I (Command, Control, Computers, Communications and Intelligence) Systems.”

For this exercise, Blue Ridge used a variety of systems and networks that make up their C4I suite. However, some systems played a more vital role than others.

“The Centrixs Block II, or Centrixs Four-Eyes (CFE), is a coalition network that allows U.S. and Australian personnel to contact not only the commander, Combined Task Force, but also other U.S. and Australian deployed land and sea units,” said Demick, a Manchester, N.H., native. “This network is the most important system for communications in the whole exercise.”

Information Systems Technician 3rd Class Mario Martinez-Negroni, the lead system administrator for the CFE network, said the system can do more than just allow communications between U.S. and Australian Forces.

“Centrixs Four-Eyes is a network that not only transfers information between U.S. and Australian forces, but it also allows us the ability to communicate with British and Canadian forces,” the San Antonio native said. “The CFE Network is composed of 70 clients and was stretched to support an additional 25. The Centrixs team took all necessary efforts to provide support for the additional load on the CFE network,” Martinez-Negroni said.

Once Blue Ridge made essential adjustments to the CFE network, they installed a system called Mercury on the network. Information Systems Technician Seaman Apprentice Tyler Montgomery, who was responsible for installing and configuring Mercury on Blue Ridge, said the system was installed to accommodate specific needs of their Australian counterparts.

“Mercury is actually an Australian messaging system that we installed specifically for this exercise,” said Montgomery, a Dayton, Ohio native. “We are using it as a primary means to contact all the ships involved in the war games via e-mail.”

“By installing the Mercury system, we’re able to connect our secure network here on the ship with the Australians' secure network for direct e-mailing,” said Information Systems Technician 2nd Class (SW) Javon Burden. “This [was] the first time that we have ever stretched our CFE network that much, allowing that kind of e-mailing capability. The CFE network is essentially the heart of the operation, and without it I really don’t think the exercise would [have been] a success.”

Burden, a Daytona Beach, Fla., native, was the supervisor of a seven-man team assigned to provide immediate technical support to Australian Defense Force personnel working in the ship’s command and control center. This team was formed to provide immediate troubleshooting for any problems that might occur, so the exercise could go as smoothly as possible. Burden said the opening days of the exercise were the most challenging for his team.

“The first couple of days were the hardest,” said Burden. “We have about 30 to 40 Australian personnel working in our Tactical Flag Command Center (TFCC) that [had] never used our systems. It was a little rough at first, assisting them with familiarization of the CFE network, TBMCS, Sametime Chat, and all other vital systems that play integral roles in the exercise.”

In TFCC, U.S. and Australian forces primarily used the Theater Management Battle Core System (TBMCS). This consists of three servers that aid in planning and execute air and land missions for the war games.

Information Systems Technician 2nd Class (SW) Keyon Thompson, one of two shipboard administrators for the TBMCS system, said a lot of work was done prepping the system before the exercise even started.

“Since this exercise [was] being conducted with Australia, we had to redesign the whole TBMCS system,” said Thompson, a Queens, N.Y., native. “After we re-designed it, we had to connect it to the CFE system, making TBMCS a joint system. All of those revisions effectively made our TBMCS system into a coalition network.”

One Australian officer who worked with the TBMCS system said at first the American system was challenging, but he could always count on members of the communications team for help.

“Trying to get familiarized with the TBMCS system was the most challenging hurdle to overcome,” said Australian Army Capt. Pat Brothers, of Sydney. “The exercise was great. It was a high-tempo, highly interactive operation in a real life environment,” he said. “This being my first time on a ship, I definitely have a newfound respect for [U.S.] Navy personnel. Without the guys from the ship’s tiger team providing 24 hour service, I really think it would have been a lot more difficult running and using the CFE network.”

The Blue Ridge communications team also spent countless hours preplanning and working to make the stay of embarked commanders and staff members comfortable and productive. They reconfigured more than 15 spaces on the ship to accommodate secure computer and phone lines for visitors. They also built more than 700 classified, non-classified and CFE network accounts.

Information systems technicians also processed more than 5,000 messages in support of Talisman Saber. One Blue Ridge Sailor said even though it was hard work, the experience was worth it.

“The best part of this whole exercise was getting to work with and share stories with the Australians,” said Burden. “They were all really relaxed and easy going. I had fun working with them and learned a lot about their systems.”

As his Sailors discussed the excitement of challenges and working in a combined task force environment, Demick recognized their hard work and support - key ingredients to a successful exercise.

“I could not get anything done in this exercise without the outstanding performance by the Sailors in Communications department,” Demick said. “The best and the brightest are here on Blue Ridge. Today’s Sailors are smarter and more educated, and it takes that to run the systems we have on Blue Ridge. I really believe we couldn’t get anything done without them.”