Extension of secure audio and video data from the NTC through the public switched telephone network

The United States Army National Training Center (NTC) at Ft. Irwin, California, can support the training of an entire heavy brigade task force. The brigade is, however, an integral part of the division, and the division commanders and their staff need to train with the brigades. This is difficult because two thirds of the division is still at the home station, and the day-to-day responsibilities of the commander and staff do not magically go away when one of the brigades is doing an NTC rotation. Raytheon E-Systems Richardson Operation with the 4^th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Ft. Hood, Texas demonstrated the capability to remote live audio and video from a brigade rotation at the NTC to the divisions home station at Ft. Hood to provide the desired training for the division commander and his staff. In order to accomplish this task it was necessary to secure a temporary, data grade leased line spanning four states, two Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), and one long distance carrier, which can be a daunting task. Adding the requirement of end-to-end encryption acceptable to the DOD further complicates this process. We developed a logical architecture to accomplish the task with specific GFE and commercial equipment and produced a successful demonstration system. Our experiences and user perceptions of the system have been used to develop an approach to fielding a fully satisfactory production system for our customer