The comprehensive real-time situational awareness and operational understanding provided by EMC can be critical to the effectiveness of the unit in the initial stages of early entry operations. Soldiers operating EMC can extend the same enroute communications, enhanced situational awareness and planning capabilities to other planes that are flying to the mission, enabling all forces to remain synchronized. Because of the increased bandwidth the system provides, commanders enroute to an objective can tap into mission command applications and utilize services such as Secure Voice over Internet Protocol (SVoIP) phone calls, chat and email.Īdditionally, EMC capabilities increase the reliability of unit communications between aircraft. By leveraging technologies similar to those used by today’s commercial airlines to provide inflight internet access, EMC enables these units to access mission command capabilities, including Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS), and secure reliable voice, video and data communications, all from an Air Force C-17 aircraft.

Units like the IRF must be able to rapidly deploy anywhere in the world with little notice and with as much situational awareness as possible. Once boots hit the ground, they can immediately begin executing the mission.

The real-time situational awareness enables early entry forces to be better prepared and to adjust courses of action as needed, prior to combating near peer adversaries on the ground. The system’s suite of network communications capabilities provide commanders with the same mission command capabilities they would use in a command post on the ground, in essence, turning the plane into a flying command post. Enroute Mission Command (EMC) provides units, such as the 82nd Airborne Division’s Immediate Response Force (IRF), with the critical in-flight mission command and plane-to-plane/plane-to-ground network communications they need to be successful in joint forcible entry operations.ĮMC improves the Army’s ability to combat sophisticated threats by enabling commanders to continue to refine their products and plan the mission as they approach their objective, receiving the critical intelligence they need to be effective and lethal.

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