Grecian Firebolt, A Historical Perspective...by AAV4FB

Many of us in MARS know Grecian Firebolt as just another MARS exercise, but it is far more than that.  The exercise is an annual event and is typically about a month in duration.

Grecian Firebolt began back in the 80's as the brain-child of a Colonel in the South Carolina Army National Guard.  It has grown into the largest signal exercise in the world.  It brought together the "Total Force" concept, which has made the modern U.S. Army what it is today, incorporating Active Army, Army Reserve and National Guard.  Later, the Air Force was incorporated, and now FEMA is participating, with a new emphasis on homeland security.  The new challenges of homeland security, and the potential communication challenges of a coordinated terrorist threat, offers MARS the opportunity to fulfill the role as an adjunct communications vehicle for our customers, as defined in our mission statement.  In short, we have a new opportunity to get back to our "roots", and prove our worth.

Members who are pondering, "What's all the fuss about Grecian Firebolt?" would do well to at least skim over the following extracts and summaries about the previous exercises and lessons learned.  A quick review of these brief abstracts will give the reader a quick "executive summary".  Internet links are provided for those who wish to review the abstracted articles in their entirety.

MARS members may  be interested to note that the "modern" military "planners" have again learned the value of HF radio, almost forgotten as obsolete.  Many will also be interested to see the new interest in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment, a lesson we in MARS have know for a long time.

This story on the ARRL website, outlined Grecian Firebolt ’01.  The exercise involved a simulated Atlantic hurricane, followed by  an earthquake in the lower Mississippi valley, and almost immediately another earthquake in California.  A Pacific storm battered Hawaii shortly thereafter.  The near simultaneous disasters taxed the ability to provide emergency communication.  Chief Sutton  and Eastern Area Coordinator Hollister, set up a HF station at Ft. A. P.. Hill in Virginia.  A very nice summary from the MARS point of view.

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2001/08/29/2/?nc=1

Grecian Firebolt 2001 (GF01) is billed as the world's largest communications exercise. A multi-component, joint endeavor, GF01 brings together Army active duty and Reserve, as well as Army and Air National Guard signal assets.  A very nice summary from the Army point of view

http://www.ftmeade.army.mil/SoundOFF/archives/SO2001/28Jun2001/html/311th_signal.htm

Grecian Firebolt 2000, the largest Signal communications exercise in the Army, was commanded by subordinate units belonging to Army Signal Command June 3-25.

The  exercise is designed to refine the integration and interoperability among Active Component, Reserve and National Guard units. Grecian Firebolt also integrates the use of current and newly developed generations of equipment, including commercial items, to ensure all services and Army components are familiar with procedures that may be necessary to successfully work together during wartime, he added.

Grecian Firebolt (2002) tests Homeland Security communications

FORT MEADE, MD This year's annual Grecian Firebolt exercise tested a worldwide communications network that could be used for Homeland Security.

"We are basically AT&T for the Army, with a lot of encryption," said node switcher, Pvt. Leland Hughes, a member of the 280th Signal Battalion from Wilmington, Del. "We want to make sure this system can talk to that system hundreds of miles away."

Grecian Firebolt '96, an advanced technology communications exercise, was the largest peacetime Army Signal Corps training exercise in the world.

Sponsored in June by the Army Information Systems Command at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., Grecian Firebolt '96 involved 23 active-duty and reserve-component units, more than 4,000 soldiers and 33 satellite terminals across the United States, Panama, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Korea and Hawaii.

The global communications system used during the exercise was managed by the Army Network and Systems Operations Center at Fort Huachuca. The overall exercise was managed by a contingent of the 311th Signal Command from Fort Meade, Md.

Reserve and National Guard participation in the exercise was crucial, said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Emory, chief of ISC's exercise and training branch. He said it gave the Guard and Reserve troops the chance to integrate with active-duty soldiers and get hands-on training while operating complex information technology systems. "As active-duty components become smaller, Reserve units must take a more active role in training," Emory said.

http://www.army.mil/soldiers/sept96/firebolt.html

Grecian Firebolt '95

Three thousand, five hundred soldiers in tactical signal units at these sites and many others recently went "hot" during Grecian Firebolt '95, the world's largest signal exercise.

Among them was SSgt. Joseph Comer of the Fort Shafter, Hawaii-based 516th Signal Brigade. He and seven others manned the brigade's systems control center and ensured network connectivity for 1st Sig. Bde. units from Korea to the 261st Sig. Command control center at Bethany Beach.

"We ensured that the 125th Sig. Battalion was connected to the exercise control center. This allowed us to serve as the theater gateway for the 1st Bde., as well as our own unit," Comer said.

The information-management system hardware provided a link between tactical and strategic signal assets for the first time.

"My team worked two 12-hour shifts daily throughout the 12-day exercise," said 1st Lt. Eve Geyer, systems control center officer in charge. "We were responsible for solving all connectivity problems the tactical units experienced and processing reports fed to us from the 1st Bde. and the 125th here at Shafter. For me, Grecian Firebolt has been excellent because I got to see all parts of the signal community."

http://www.army.mil/soldiers/oct95/p30.html

Grecian Firebolt, a Historical Perspective 

Grecian Firebolt has evolved from a joint training exercise championed in the early 1980s by South Carolina Army Guard Col. Gene Riley, who served for 27 years in the 228th Brigade and who believed that signal soldiers in all components “needed to train together.”

Grecian Firebolt is the only worldwide command, control, communications and computer training exercise. It provides an opportunity for the services, including the Army Reserve and National Guard, to try new things, test new procedures and ensure we provide the best communication support to 'war fighting' CINCs.

The exercise is designed to refine the integration and interoperability among active component, Reserve and National Guard units.

The 2002 Grecian Firebolt exercise tested a worldwide communications network that could be used for Homeland Security. The Federal Emergency Management Agency joined the month-long exercise as part of the Homeland Security scenario, and so did the U.S. Joint Forces Command. FEMA directors said they like the Army’s signal reliability and the versatility of using several communication paths. They also like any path increasing their speed of contacting the Department of Defense. U.S. Joint Forces Command was involved in the exercise to observe the interoperability between Army and Air Force communications assets. The command is evaluating the infrastructure for a Homeland Security defense communications template. The exercise, which began June 1, costs approximately $1.2 million dollars budgeted annually by reserve-component units participating in it.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/grecian-firebolt.htm

Grecian Firebolt 2001

Integrating Air Force, Army, active and reserve component units during annual training exercises has become increasingly common, due to the U.S. Army’s focus on its “Total Force Concept”…[which] has risen to a new level.

http://www.delawarenationalguard.com/dngnews/jul01/gf01/scots.htm

FEMA enters the scene, Grecian Firebolt 2002

As part of a month-long communications exercise focused on interoperability among U.S. armed forces and FEMA and an Army Reserve unit conducted a video conference halfway across the country.  The exercise included reserve and active Army units, and Army and Air National Guard units connecting more than 30 sites throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0624/web-bolt-06-26-02.asp

  Lessons Learned in Previous Grecian Firebolt exercises 

There were three primary lessons-learned during the GF mission.

The customer requires connectivity that’s both reliable and manageable. Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS)  equipment was introduced to the military communications environment, terms such as reliable and manageable took on a whole new meaning.

Solutions to customer needs via COTS equipment should be flexible, scalable and adaptable depending on the environment.

Signal soldiers need to know more about COTS. The small number of individuals with COTS knowledge during GF ’99 made the mission successful, but more training is needed on COTS to expand the present limited knowledge base.

Using Amateur Radio as Signal Training

A non-U.S. element of MND-North needed to use HF radio as its primary means to communicate with the U.S. engineer brigade it was temporarily attached to. No one in the engineer brigade knew how to establish such a link, nor did anyone in the division G-6. There were also equipment and antenna issues no one could quickly resolve. Needless to say, the HF net was never implemented and other, less desirable, means were found to do the communications mission in question.

In the case of the MND-North mission, knowledge of near-vertical-incidence sky wave propagation, general HF propagation, HF radio operations and HF antennas would have helped immensely, given the terrain and distances involved.

Many people will be skeptical about my proposal to advance amateur radio as a part of UIT, or even as a legitimate way to help maintain critical communications skills…

…To that end, the Signal Regiment should embrace amateur radio as a training tool for Signal Regiment members.

HF radio returns to “Transformation Army”, or “Back to the Future”

In many respects, the U.S. Army is now going "back to the future" with HF tactical radios. After almost 30 years of being the only army in the world and the only service in the Defense Department failing to see the continuing military value of HF radio development, the Army has recently done an "about face" on a large scale.

The aviation, Special Operations Forces, medical and other Army branches have long recognized the value of HF radio for long-distance/wide-area communications in both ground operations and when engaged in "nap of the earth" flying. However, of late we in the Signal Regiment have virtually ignored this communications mode despite its success.

Until recently, the Signal branch declared that all BLOS tactical communications would be accomplished via satellite communications or by using ground-based retransmission stations. Signal planners assumed there would always be enough satellites or retransmission assets at the right locations with enough channel capacity, and enough ground equipment and money to handle our entire tactical long-distance/wide-area communication requirements.

This false assumption was adhered to at the highest levels, even when we knew the advent of automated systems would generate massive amounts of additional BLOS radio traffic at almost every location and tactical organization on the battlefield – down to the platform level. Accordingly, HF development ground to a virtual halt in the "big" Army, and the once-extensive HF institutional training and doctrine base of the 1930s, 40s and 50s eroded to an almost-nonexistent capability.

Through the 70s, 80s and 90s, the Signal Center unilaterally declared that remaining tactical HF radio required too much knowledge of frequency and antenna technology for the Signal soldier to employ, so HF radio was declared "user-owned and -operated general-purpose equipment." This allowed other branches like SOF, aviation and the Army Medical Department to provide their own Signal procurement, training and support for their unique HF communications networks, exclusive of any Signal Corps involvement.

This usually meant things were OK as long as everything worked. Unfortunately, plenty of Signal officers caught hell from commanders when things went bad. Unit Signal officers not only couldn’t fix whatever the problem was with these networks and equipment, but even worse, didn’t understand them due to lack of training at the Signal Center. Most commanders didn’t accept the Signal branch’s inability to support these unique communications networks, and I’m personally aware it reflected poorly on many S-6 officer-evaluation reports and on the Signal Corps’ professional reputation.

Now, let’s roll the clock forward to the current era of Army transformation and IBCTs. An honest analysis of the brigade’s long-distance communications requirements revealed SATCOM and ground-based radio retransmission couldn’t be the answer for all BLOS communications requirements – for reasons too many to go into here. This has led IBCT designers to recognize the need for mobile-ground and platform-based HF communications. (For locations of equipment and net structures, refer to the applicable IBCT doctrine publications.)

IBCT Signal doctrine still considers HF radio to be user-owned and -operated, but the Signal Regiment has finally agreed we need to have HF-radio-trained staff in the IBCT Signal office (S-6) to sustain non-Signal users of HF systems. It’s now recognized the IBCT Signal staff needs to engineer HF radio nets, integrate HF equipment into brigade operations, know how to use HF communications’ advantages for the brigade, and provide training and support to non-Signal users of the HF equipment. The return to tactical HF communications is a major step forward for the tactical Signal community and is now also a new major responsibility for the brigade S-6 in IBCTs.

Since the "big Army" hasn’t fielded any new HF equipment since it adopted the Marine Corps-developed AN/PRC-104/GRC-193 family of HF equipment (known as the improved HF radio) in the 1970s, we had to be judicious in our procurement approach. Due to the requirement to field the IBCTs quickly, time was essential.

The Department of the Army decided a new family of modern HF equipment was required, but it should be procured as a commercial-off-the-shelf, non-developmental item. DA also wisely decided that since the new family of equipment was a significant change in both acquisition approach and technology from previous developments, this effort needed to be project-managed. The result is the Army’s new Transformation High-Frequency Radio System, managed by the project manager for tactical-radio communications systems. (PM-TRCS is a subcommand of the program executive office for command, control and communications systems – both are headquartered at Fort Monmouth, N.J.) 

http://www.gordon.army.mil/AC/wintr01/HFIBCT.htm