Wireless Technology Comes to the Battlefield

Rugged hand-held device helps soldiers on the battlefield improve the accuracy and speed of call-for-fire requests.

In wars past, battlefield forward observers used a cumbersome manual process involving binoculars, a radio, compass, pencils, coordinate scale, and a printed map to target the location of the enemy and send the order to fire up the chain of command. That process had the potential for error—verbal commands could be overheard; radio transmissions could be noisy, garbled, or misunderstood; targets could move too quickly; and the risk of friendly fire was very high.

Pocket-sized Forward Entry Device (PFED)

But today in Afghanistan and Iraq, warfighters have a better way. It’s a rugged hand-held device—slightly larger than a Palm Pilot—called the Pocket-sized Forward Entry Device (PFED). Designed and developed with the help of Booz Allen, PFED is helping the US Army improve the accuracy and speed of call-for-fire requests. “PFED uses military lasers, radios, wireless and satellite communications, and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology to send secure and precise targeting information from the battlefield up the chain of command,” says McLean-based Associate Tom Roe, who serves as project manager.

Booz Allen’s team of hardware engineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, artillery experts, safety experts, and others worked closely with the US Army to develop PFED. They studied field manuals used by Army and Marine Corps forward observers and interviewed field artillery end-users. Using this information, Booz Allen organized the screens to take advantage of well-established field artillery training and doctrine.

The result is an intuitive user interface that reduces training time and increases accuracy and safety. For instance, call-for-fire icons are large and easily distinguishable from other features to minimize the chance of error in difficult situations such as poor visibility or encumbering gear. The screen can be easily viewed in both day and night operations. And call-for-fire coordinates can be entered manually in the event that the automated GPS or military laser targeting functionality is degraded.

“PFED has received enthusiastic acceptance in the artillery community,” says Roe. “It’s a far cry from the compass and pencil days.”

story posted September 9, 2006