MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Virginia—Marine Corps Systems Command is entering the last stage of development for the Secure Communications Controller, a new type of hardware used to facilitate rapid, secure communication across multiple mediums.
MCSC’s Marine Air-Ground Task Force Command, Control and Communications program office developed SCC with the Small Business Innovation Research program. The SBIR program gives U.S. small businesses the opportunity to develop innovative technologies to address Marine Corps needs. The SCC is designed to help Marines communicate with other U.S. and foreign military partners, as well as emergency management and first responders in joint environments or disaster response missions.
“Previously, Marines were limited in their ability to communicate between disparate communications systems, but with the SCC, a Marine using a high frequency radio will be able to communicate with a first responder or coalition ally on a totally different comm device seamlessly,” said Basil Moncrief, lead for the MCSC MC3 Extensible MAGTF C2 Systems.
With its own software and weighing only 15 pounds, the SCC can be used to communicate with tactical radios, cellular networks, land mobile radios and voice-over-internet-protocol. SCC synchronizes communication equipment without the need for complex coding or encryption.
This means Marines can communicate with governmental and non-governmental agencies, as well as other military forces using radio frequencies or internet protocol interchangeably over the same network.
The SCC was actively tested during the 2014 Ssang Yong exercise, which is held annually with the Republic of Korea to strengthen interoperability between both nations.
“III Marine Expeditionary Force and ROK Marines successfully demonstrated cross-connection between both nations’ radio networks,” Moncrief said. “The Marines set up the SCC and cross-linked three radio networks within 15 to 20 minutes multiple times.”
In 2015, the SCC Rapid Technology Transfer effort was awarded the Technology Transition Achievement Award for successfully and rapidly transitioning the SCC into MC3’s Networking-On-The-Move, or NOTM, program of record.
SCC capabilities tests are now underway at the 2016 Ssang Yong exercise in Pohang, South Korea, which continues through mid-March.
MCSC oversees the development, acquisition and lifecycle logistics of Marine Corps ground weapon and information technology system programs.