DVIDs:
Soldiers with 94th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, conducted an air and missile defense planning control system training exercise, July 13 to 24, 2015, at Shafter Flats, Hawaii.
The air and missile defense planning control systems (AMDPCS) is a system that facilitates gathering of air defense feeds from alternate locations, consolidating the information in a tactical operation center for a commander and his staff to have visual and informational situational awareness in order to make the most appropriate operational decisions.
“This was an opportunity for us to train air defense Soldiers to set up and integrate this system in case we have to deploy the system forward at any point,” said Staff Sgt. Mark Giauque, an early warning battle systems operator with the 94th AAMDC.
The training exercise which lasted approximately two weeks included the physical setup of the system, the integration and updating of mission command system and fielding new system software that is still in the testing phase.
“We developed exercise training objectives that would facilitate validating the system, help our crews maintain proficiency and exercise our battle drills with the staff so we are prepared to deploy if the need be,” said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Heather Ritter, the command control systems integrator with 94th AAMDC.
“During the exercise, we trained air defense Soldiers on the proper setup of the systems, on the different systems we have and how to integrate them, on proper troubling shooting procedures, and we updated the software in the defense systems,” continued Giauque.
“This was also an opportunity for our [air defense] Soldiers to gain from each other additional helpful information on various aspects of their jobs,” said Giauque.
“This was a great learning opportunity for all air defense Soldiers in the 94th AAMDC,” said Staff Sgt. Ian Duffy, an air defense battle management systems operator with 94th AAMDC. “We are fortunate to have many Soldiers sharing their vast knowledge base with each other, not only junior Soldiers but also for us more experienced air defense Soldiers too, which is important for continuity,.
A highlight of the exercise was air defense Soldiers having an opportunity to provide valuable feedback on developing software that will be utilized with in their field in the future.
“We were able to share what we liked or disliked about the future software,” shared Duffy. “The feedback from Soldiers is important for these future upgrades to work effectively for Soldiers working in this field.”
“We were able to generate feedback on how we would use the software, and how to improve and how to sustain it,” said Ritter.
“It is a great opportunity to be part of helping develop a product that works well for operators and provides more capabilities with less cost which illustrates the evolution of Army technology and operating systems.”
