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 Follow-on Operational Test and Evaluation (FOT&E) for Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) Increment 2, the backbone of the Army’s tactical network, and will focus on continued solidification of the network baseline.

WHAT DOES NIE 13.2 MEAN FOR THE ARMY?

• NIE 13.2 will help build and vet the Capability Set (CS) 14 network architecture.
• Provide the Army with the relevant technical, Soldier, and integration observations and data to make informed decisions on a path forward for procuring and integrating technologies.
• Evaluate non-networked systems, including operational energy.
• Set the stage for NIEs evolving to Joint operations (NIE 14.2 and beyond).
• Evaluate Aerial Tier solutions designed to provide Soldiers assured network access, range extension and throughput capability.
• Provide key lessons learned to be applied to the process of producing, fielding and training units on CS 14.

WHAT IS THE NIE?

The Agile Process provides an opportunity to introduce and evaluate commercial and developmental government technologies in an effort to maintain technological relevance. Those evaluations will provide the Army with the relevant technical, Soldier, and integration observations and data to make an informed decision on a path forward for procuring and integrating these technologies into Capability Sets.

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 also inform the ways the Army will field, train, sustain and continuously improve capability acquisition and life cycle management. Lessons learned from the NIEs have been applied to the process of producing, fielding and training units on Capability Set 13, the first integrated package to emerge out of the NIE process, and to align several key Army network Programs of Record (PORs).

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. The Army is using the NIE construct to help validate tactical network requirements, integrate complex systems, ensure system interoperability and most important to gain Soldier feedback to inform the Army on what systems show promise from a user perspective. 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.