ICHEON, South Korea - Army communicators from the ROK and U.S. teamed up for a C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence) Summit, hosted by ROK/U.S. Combined Forces Command at the Combined Special Operations Component Command-Korea compound in Icheon December 1.
Eighth Army Assistant Chief of Staff for G6, Col. Randy Wardle, and CFC Assistant Chief of Staff for C6, Brig. General Park, Ki Hwan said the goal was to strengthen partnerships while participating in briefings, demonstrations and discussions.
Similar to the semi-annual ROK/U.S. Ground Command and Control Interoperability Boards (G2CIB) held between the two nations' military communicators, the focus of this summit was to provide commanding generals and their staffs an overview of current tactical communications technologies as a means to further develop interoperability.
Subject matter experts from Eighth Army G6, along with the United States Forces Korea Science Technology Advisor, Mr. Park, Jin Woo, conducted briefings on tactical communication support to weapons of mass destruction-elimination operations. They highlighted current tactical communication capabilities, existing constraints and technological challenges, and laid out a plan to further improve interoperability.
"U.S. and ROK systems are increasingly becoming interoperable on voice, data, and radio networks," said Eighth Army G6 Operations Officer, Lt. Col. Johnathan Easler. "We still have work to do in improving C4I interoperability, which remains a top priority of ours."
As the culminating event to this theater-wide summit, Eighth Army's major subordinate commands, the 304th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, and 2nd Infantry Division ROK/US Combined Division gave demonstrations on diverse communications systems and interoperable solutions. Also presenting demonstrations were Special Operation Command-Korea and ROK Army personnel.
Lt. Col. Kim, Jung Min, 2nd Infantry Division's ROK Deputy G6, said, "These kinds of events enable us to understand differences in technologies and doctrine between our forces and work towards effective solutions."