The Star-Ledger April 07, 2003
Army makes foray into digital battlefield
Storied 4th Infantry Division eager to put high-tech gear to the test in Iraq
By Kevin Coughlin
Its troops were the first to hit the beach on D-Day, and the first Americans to liberate Paris from the Nazis.
Now, the Army's 4th Infantry Division is itching to make more history by mixing bits and bytes with bombs and bullets in Iraq.
Dubbed the "Digital Division," the 4th has a unique ability to see the battlefield via a "tactical Internet."
M1A2 tanks, Apache Longbow helicopters, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and artillery units can share their locations, targeting information, and real-time text messages with commanders and each other.
Friends (blue icons) and foes (red) appear on rugged touch-screen displays that give combatants the big picture as it unfolds.
The idea is to cut through the fog of war and minimize "friendly-fire" accidents, which accounted for nearly one in four U.S. deaths in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and continue in the current conflict.
Allied forces now fighting in Iraq have pieces of this command and control system, known in Army-speak as FBCB2 for "Force 21 Battle Command Brigade and Below." Tanks can share data with tanks, choppers with choppers, and so on.
"What makes the 4th unique is it's the first division in which everybody has this stuff," said Philip Coyle of the Center for Defense Information, a research organization.
Tanks can send text messages -- more reliable than voice communications in the heat of battle -- to troop transports. Choppers can relay target coordinates to artillery batteries.
Each vehicle has a cyber-address to identify it; locations are updated constantly via Global Positioning Satellites. Data are encrypted and shuttled among vehicles by radio. Frequencies hopscotch so enemies cannot home in on the signals.
All this happens almost automatically, said Peter Keating of General Dynamics Land Systems, prime contractor for 250 M1A2-SEP tanks that the 4th Infantry is poised to debut.
Sealed and pressurized against biochemical attacks, shielded against circuit-crippling nuclear shock waves, and "cooled" to a toasty 95 degrees, these $5.5 million tanks contain about $1 million of electronics, Keating said.
There are two infrared targeting systems -- one for the tank commander, one for the gunner. The commander can swing the turret to his target with a push-button, then start hunting for more prey.
All tank functions are controlled by a computer roughly equivalent to a Pentium III machine. A backup system kicks in if the main one fails.
"It's like having a redundant PC on your desk, so if one crashes, you still get the same critical data," Keating said.
If the computer systems fails, manual controls are a last resort.
If the tank crew faces capture, they can quickly delete sensitive data, Keating said. It's harder to destroy the detachable keyboards and touch-screens, designed to absorb rebooting from GI footwear.
The polarized screens are viewable in bright sun but cast no tell-tale glow at night, Keating said, and they can be activated by gloved soldiers in chem-bio suits.
While the 4th Infantry's high-tech gear is untested in battle, the division's biggest challenge simply may be joining the fight before it ends in Iraq.
The 4th's gear is just arriving in Kuwait, after more than two months on ships while officials unsuccessfully sought Turkey's permission to roll into northern Iraq. By some accounts, it may take another two weeks for the 4th's 16,000 troops to enter the fray.
"This isn't going to be the (digital) proving ground the Army was hoping for," said defense analyst Patrick Garrett of GlobalSecurity.org.
Based in Fort Hood, Texas, the 4th trains to defend South Korea; the division rushed to repaint vehicles in desert hues after getting late marching orders from the Army, Garrett said.
The analyst asserted the division's high-tech assets are not meant for the urban warfare that may lie ahead.
"The tank battles are pretty much over," Garrett said. So he expects the 4th's contribution to be more traditional: "Fresh people," to spell weary coalition forces.
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