Army adds TIGR to battle command systems

The Army information sharing application that allows warfighters to share operational data will soon run on the service’s battlefield networks.

The Tactical Ground Reporting (TIGR) system is designed to run on ruggedized laptops for use by troops in the field. Recently it has been loaded onto the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) system—the main command and control system used by Army and Marine Corps units and it will soon be a part of the upcoming Joint Battle Command (JBC) software suite.

Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) as a Web-based tool for soldiers to share and post information about their area of operation, TIGR made its debut in Iraq in 2007. The program officially switched over to Army supervision on October 1, John Gillette, TIGR product manager with the Army’s Brigade Modernization Command, said Oct. 11 at the AUSA annual meeting and exposition in Washington, D.C.

Besides being able to run on laptops and FBCB2 systems, TIGR can run from command post or other battlefield servers. It can also be directly loaded onto vehicle mounted FBCB 2 systems via a Secure Mission Data Server—a secure USB made by Iron Key.

The application can be hosted on the servers carried on Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) command and communications vehicles. This provides the system with greater speed to deliver video and imagery because it takes advantage of the high bandwidth WIN-T network, Gillette said.

The next version of TIGR will be loaded on the JBC software platform, which is scheduled for release in 2013-2014. JBC users will access TIGR via a touch menu and make use of new capabilities such as a search function that pulls up and maps and notes about events taking place in a unit’s immediate area.

One of the benefits of being loaded onto FBCB2 is that it allows users to see where friendly forces are and it allows commanders to see what reported historical events have taken place in a region, said Gillette. For example, a commander could look up a history of known improvised explosive device attacks along a patrol route. TIGR also interoperates with Marine Corps systems such as the Marine Link intelligence system, he said.