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Expeditionary Center adding 'SPICE' to its curriculum

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
  • U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center Public Affairs
FORT DIX, N.J. (AFNS) --  The Mobility Operations School continues to feast on new challenges to train warfighting Airmen. The latest course in its buffet of training is some added SPICE.

In February 2009, the SPICE, or Small Package Initial Communications Element, Course will begin a 25-day training regimen for select Airmen. Students will learn about the SPICE system, which delivers regular and secure electronic mail and secure/non-secure voice communications to bare-base deployed locations.

"It's a highly deployable half-pallet system that provides a deployed contingency response group or element vital communications capability," said Tech. Sgt. Adrian C. McDonough, SPICE Course director. 

The SPICE system is more Internet Protocol-based than any other deployable system, Sergeant McDonough said. It relies on accessing the Defense Information System Network using commercial, off-the-shelf equipment. It provides all the capabilities equal to any communications squadron, giving Airmen essentially the same systems to use on deployment as they do at home station.

"You could move a SPICE course graduate to a communications squadron and that Airman would rock and roll -- day one," Sergeant McDonough said.

In addition, the course director said the only difference from traditional communications equipment used in the field is the SPICE system accesses its communications "through a commercial or military satellite rather than buried cable." It's some of the top communications equipment available, he said, and the training will produce Airmen with increased skills.

"Because our emphasis is on light and lean, the Air Force and AMC are constantly upgrading the equipment which translates to having access to cutting-edge technology," Sergeant McDonough said. "Our students will learn how to operate and configure all of it. It also means just two COMM maintainers will have the skills of a whole network control center."

Offered through the MOS Expeditionary Branch, the course teaches students to "completely" configure and operate the SPICE system. "Graduates will be able to perform every aspect of communications equipment operations," Sergeant McDonough said. "The course will include system troubleshooting, pre-deployment and post-deployment preparations, deployed setup and configuration and deployed operations of the equipment."

Working with Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., the 819th Global Support Squadron from McGuire AFB, N.J., Sergeant McDonough and fellow SPICE Course instructor Staff Sgt. Jason Girvin developed the course material from scratch.

"We've run the equipment we'll be using through the gauntlet and we've had tons of coordination completed through AMC," Sergeant McDonough said. "Our goal from the start was to build a top-notch training program and have input from the experts in the field. This is a big step in helping the deployed communicator have the latest training and equipment available to them."

Capt. Eli Martinez, communications officer from AMC Headquarters, said the SPICE system was developed to increase command and control bandwidth for contingency response forces while maintaining a small footprint for rapid deployment during the initial stages of opening an air base.

"After assuming responsibility for an airfield from seizure forces (Army or Marines), a CRG would use SPICE to help receive the 1,200 to 3,000 follow-on forces who will operate the mission," Captain Martinez said in a 2007 Air Force Communications Agency article. "Until the implementation of SPICE, the CRG was limited to 128 kilobytes per second or less bandwidth to communicate with the outside world during this process."

Sergeant McDonough said contingency response Airmen will still train and certify on communication-oriented tasks as they always have, however, the SPICE Course will give them "a solid foundation that will prepare them to ease into on-the-job training at their home units where they have to complete a year-long SPICE training path."

"After they graduate, they will have configured and operated the SPICE for every mission it is capable of doing," Sergeant McDonough said. "They'll have numerous training hours detecting and fixing errors. The ultimate success depends on the students, and units, taking what they have learned and using it frequently in preparation for the deployed environment."

To learn more about U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center, Mobility Operations School and courses offered, visit www.expeditionarycenter.af.mil or the see the USAF EC's page on Air Force Portal. 

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