Integrated Tactical Communications System

Concept

The ITCS is a concept that I have been considering, and am still developing, that would modernize Amateur Radio Emergency Communications by integrating many of our technologies and capabilities into one, coordinated command and control system that we would be able to offer to our served agencies.

While most ARES/RACES groups have the ability to deploy APRS, Packet, FM voice, HF SSB and CW and other assets to some extent, there is no coordinated, national approach to providing these services. I beleive that both Amateur Radio and it's served agencies would benefit greatly from a single, standardized system that is flexible enough to be deployed in any situation, and capable enough that it will bring Amateur EMCOM into the 21st century in style.

Not only would the system be able to do things like handle APRS command and control tracking, email-style message traffic and normal tactical voice traffic, but if properly implemented and standardized, the ITCS would bring the Mutual Aid concept to the forefront of Amateur EMCOM, where I believe it should be. It is unreasonable to expect an Amateur Radio volunteer who is affected by a disaster to respond to that disaster. Thus, it should be expected that non-affected Amateurs from nearby regions be able to come to the disaster area and provide services. The problem with Amateur Radio Mutual Aid is that neighboring ARES/RACES groups may not be coordinated, and even if they are often have separate Emergency Plans. The ITCS addresses this by creating a national standard, and goes a step further by allowing ARES/RACES groups to offer a complete Command and Control service.

The ITCS would accomplish thease feats by integrating a great variety of Amateur Radio capabilities into one system, including APRS for asset tracking, Packet for email-style traffic, FM Voice for Tactical communications, SSTV and ATV for disaster assesment, and HF SSB/CW/PSK31 for long distance communications. All of these technologies are available, but they have not been implemented into a single system, and the current email contemporary (WinLink) has a number of requirements that make it prohibitive to use for many groups. The ITCS is largely an Information Technology platform to link all of these systems together. It is also a communications standard and an Emergency Plan.

In the coming days and weeks I will continue on the ITCS concept, describing how it might work, who should develop it, how it would be deployed and why we need it.