The US Army has tested new approaches to give warfighters direct data access in the field through mobile applications as part of an exercise at Fort Carson, Colorado.
The Operation Jailbreak exercise, facilitated as the first phase of the military’s broader Right-to-Integrate technology-sharing initiative, brought together soldiers, software developers, acquisition officials, and industry partners to improve connectivity between enterprise business systems and tactical applications.
Rather than replacing existing enterprise resource planning systems, the drill aimed to make logistics, sustainment, finance, and personnel data available through applications running on tablets and other mission devices.
During the event, troops used connected applications to identify replacement parts, check inventories, and submit maintenance requests without returning to a command post.
Officials noted that the exercise also gave insights into mobile applications being developed and raised awareness of other options with overlapping or obsolete functions, backing the army’s compliance effort to prevent the adoption of redundant solutions.
“Our business systems were built for people sitting in offices to support the Warfighter,” said Lt. Col. Stephanie Williams, system director for the US Army’s Global Combat Support System.
“At Fort Carson, we saw Soldiers in the field accessing the business processes they need without going through an office.”
Enabling Focus on Fight
Reginald Shuford, project director for Consolidated Enterprise Resource Planning, highlighted that the solutions showcased from Operational Jailbreak eliminate administrative burden, fast-tracking capability distribution while keeping troops focused on frontline operations.
“The applications being built are a way to connect Soldiers to the live transactional data inside our systems,” he explained. “They do not need access to the full system; they just need access to a particular data set.”
“We do not normally take business systems to the field. Seeing Soldiers actually fight with these toolsets was eye-opening,” Shuford added.
The military plans to hold additional Operation Jailbreak events, leading to the Project Convergence joint force networking exercise taking place this summer.
