WHAT IS NIE 13.2?

Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 13.2 is the fifth in a series of semi-annual, Solider-led evaluations designed to further integrate and rapidly progress the Army’s tactical network. NIE 13.2 will take place at Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Missile Range, N.M., April-May 2013, will utilize the 3,800 Soldiers of the 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division (2/1 AD), and will be managed by the NIE “TRIAD” – the Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC), the Brigade Modernization Command (BMC) and the System of Systems Engineering & Integration (SoSE&I) Directorate. NIE 13.2 will be used to execute the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2 Follow-on Operational Test and Evaluation (FOTE), and will focus on continued solidification of the network baseline. NIE 13.2 testing priorities and focus areas include continued Capability Set 14/15 integrated baseline evaluations, Network Operations (NETOPS) assessments, Operations-Intelligence (Ops-Intel) convergence, Common Operating Environment (COE) integration (platform/dismount) and Mission Command On-the-Move (MCOTM) refinement (mounted and dismounted Tactical Operations Centers).

WHAT DOES NIE 13.2 MEAN FOR THE ARMY?

NIE 13.2 will be used to execute the WIN-T Increment 2 FOTE and allow the Army to conduct a “single” evaluation in a clean test environment. WIN-T Increment 2 is the backbone of the Army’s tactical network, providing key MCOTM capability beyond what is available in today’s operational force. Focusing on WIN-T Increment 2 field testing will help the Army assess the network baseline, allowing for a full rate production decision. A positive WIN-T Increment 2 FOTE will solidify the network baseline – allowing for a full-rate production decision, which will facilitate future WIN-T modifications and opportunities for additional industry and government solutions to be integrated and evaluated as part of the Army’s tactical network. Laboratories at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), MD, will provide robust lab-based risk reduction to better integrate and assess NIE 13.2 Systems Under Evaluation (SUEs) and help build and vet the Capability Set (CS) 14/15 network architecture.

WHAT IS THE NIE?

The Army has fundamentally changed the way it develops, evaluates, tests and delivers networked capability to its operating forces. The Agile Process aims to improve efficiency and effectiveness, while reducing the amount of time and resources necessary to respond to rapid changes in Soldier requirements. The semi-annual NIE is helping shape “agile” capability integration by assessing Soldier provided and technical operational test data to influence not only how the Army should procure capability, but also how integrated network capability requirements should be validated and refined. NIEs inform the ways the Army will field, train, sustain and continuously improve capability acquisition and life cycle management. The NIEs leverage a full Brigade Combat Team – nearly 3,800 Soldiers – to integrate, evaluate and assess potential networked and non-networked capabilities in a robust operational environment at Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Missile Range, N.M., to determine whether they perform as needed, conform to the network architecture and are interoperable with existing systems. The NIE ensures that the network satisfies the functional requirements of the force, and relieves the end user of the technology integration burden. By executing two NIEs per year, the Army will conduct the first evaluation to assess broad industry capability gap solutions, and then use feedback to validate and refine the requirement prior to additional targeted gap industry solicitation for participation in the second NIE.

NIE - A NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS