Joint Interoperability Division helps training take flight
U.S. Joint Forces Command’s Ft. Mcpherson, Ga.-based Joint Interoperability Division recently sent mobile training teams to Korea and Germany to deliver courses aimed to teach and better equip the joint warfighter in current capabilities and how to manage information to support real world operations. Petty Officer Nikki Carter has the story.
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Narrated by: MC2 (AW) Nikki Carter
Featuring: Army Lt. Col. Kyle Kolthoff
Carter: U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Interoperability Division or JID has recently taken its interoperability training on joint information management and exchange to warfighters in Korea and Germany.
Teaching the intricacies of the month-long Joint Interface Control Officer course in Korea came in tandem with Foal Eagle, an exercise designed to demonstrate the ability of the Republic of Korea and the United States militaries to work together.
Army Lt. Col. Kyle Kolthoff said all of these courses which train the officers known as JICOs, are taught in conjunction with a major joint exercise.
Kolthoff: By combining the class and the exercise we provide a real world perspective to the students. This mixing of training provides the opportunity for the students to experience link establishment and operations in a very real but controlled environment.
Carter: According to Kolthoff, JICOs plan and manage timely and accurate information flow among the various sensors, shooters and decision makers.
Kolthoff: The JICO is responsible for the accuracy of the information, the timeliness of delivery and is charged with designing and monitoring the architecture to ensure delivery to each key user. Each of our services in the past has followed their own interpretation of the joint standards for data link procurement and implementation. The differences in the legacy systems will have to be managed with tactics, techniques and procedures for the foreseeable future. This standardization of training across the services enhances warfighter capabilities and effectiveness
Carter: Only 321 specialists in the U.S. armed forces have received JICO training so far. Kolthoff said the joint warfighter requires specific information from critical nodes throughout the theater of operations. This information exchange requirement gives the JICOs a domain they have used in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
JICOs deployed for the first time to support commanders in 2001.
Kolthoff: This small team of specialist value was quickly recognized and moved into Afghanistan as soon as the airfield in Kandahar was cleared to land a C-130.
This "trial by fire" in Afghanistan resulted in these small JICO teams deploying in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Carter: For more information on this and other ways U.S. Joint Forces Command is supporting the warfighter, visit us on the web at www.jfcom.mil.
For U.S. Joint Forces Command, I'm Petty Officer Nikki Carter.
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