United States Marine Corps Expeditionary Rifle Squad Communications

• Main Authors: Amin, Krunal, Dixon, Jeffrey, Hunt, Kathryn, Manternach, Peter, Roach, Brenda, Bochenek, Larry, Elgart, Richard, Jeleniewski, Yancy, Reap, Jonathan, Song, Brian
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: ACCURACY; ALGORITHMS; ARCHITECTURE; AUTOMATION; COMMUNICATION AND RADIO SYSTEMS; COMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT; COMMUNICATION MODELING; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DATA PROCESSING; ENVIRONMENTS; HUMAN FACTORS ENGINEERING; INTEGRATED SYSTEMS; INTERFACES; LEADERSHIP; MARINE CORPS; Military Forces and Organizations; MILITARY FORCES(UNITED STATES); MILITARY OPERATIONS; OPERATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS; Radio Communications; RADIO EQUIPMENT; RELIABILITY; RIFLES; SQUAD LEVEL ORGANIZATIONS; SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE; SYSTEMS ENGINEERING; SYSTEMS INTEGRATION; TACTICAL WARFARE; TEAMS(PERSONNEL); USER NEEDS; Voice Communications

This CAPSTONE Report documents the Systems Engineering (SE) efforts of Team Marine, from JAN 2009 to SEP 2009, in developing a recommendation to the US Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC), on the best course of action to Enhance the USMC Expeditionary Rifle Squad Communications System. The squad leader is the cornerstone for USMC tactical operations. Clear, concise, accurate and reliable communications to and from the squad leader is the key to squad operations, performance and tactical effectiveness. Today's fielded communications system for the squad leader requires the use of two separate radios, each with different encryption algorithms, different user interfaces, and different data processing capabilities. This primitive design has thrust the squad leader into a complex Human Factors environment with disparate components that have not been well engineered or integrated. Team Marine applied and tailored the systems engineering (SE) process based on NPS course work and professional experience. This SE process enabled the team to completely understand and model the current system in terms of architecture, capabilities and functions. The process led the team and stakeholders to conclude that an evolutionary approach of system integration was preferred over the traditional Manufacturer A vs. Manufacturer B run off. The team's recommendation is to pursue an integrated communications system, based on existing and emerging components, as the best course of action. The first incremental step of the recommendation is to upgrade the existing elements by adding an automated communications processor with enhanced human to system interfaces. The original document contains color images.