HELEMANO MILITARY RESERVATION, Hawaii — Just over a year ago the 307th Expeditionary Signal Battalion – Enhanced transitioned from traditional Warfighter Information Network – Tactical signal equipment to the new Scalable Network Node model.
Throughout this transition, the battalion has continued to provide theater-level support across the globe, from exercises like Cobra Gold 2023 in Thailand, Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center in Alaska, Yama Sakura 83 in Japan; to Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief support for Typhoon Mawar in Guam during the summer of 2023.
Maintaining mission support while conducting new equipment training and fielding, the lessons learned are boundless endless.
The equipment is now simplified for deployment while offering customers more transport options in a rapidly changing environment, where speed of communication on the battlefield is an undeniable need.
“The pace of change is increasing, and there are no signs of slowing down,” said U.S. Army Pacific Commanding General, Gen. Charles Flynn during Land Forces Pacific Symposium 2023. “The world is becoming more urbanized, information changes constantly, and the speed of human interactions is staggering.”
Across the Indo-Pacific theater, operational mindsets shift rapidly to account for the speed of information.
In keeping up with the speed of information, the 307th ESB-E ties in with organizations across the globe, coordinate communications support within the Indo-Pacific theater, build out tactical networks and assess the effectiveness of primary, alternate, contingency and emergency plans using the new equipment.
This transition has given the 307th soldiers the opportunity to successfully experiment in the theater with subject matter experts within joint and partner communities, to include expanding network monitoring that ties between legacy and the newer enhanced equipment.
“The new SNN systems have some significant advantages compared to the WIN-T legacy equipment. The equipment is much smaller, and the kit is considered safe for commercial flights which to allow our teams to rapid use,” said 1st. Sgt. Ruben Torres, 307th ESB-E Bravo Company first sergeant. “This scalability enables our teams to deploy in forward support of our customers faster than ever, empowering teams to secure their equipment and face the mission with minimal impacts to their timeline.”