Almost all military, public safety, and search & rescue professionals have had difficulty with communications gear. Common challenges can arise from relying on a single piece of equipment that unexpectantly fails or a lack of trained personnel to utilize available alternative equipment.

The addition of new communications equipment can drastically improve the capabilities of a unit or organization. Effective military and public service communications demand rapidly deployable solutions that are both durable and reliable. Good teams need the best equipment to accomplish the mission.

Acquiring new communications equipment, even tactical communication equipment, is typically not the tricky part of the improvement process. The real challenge comes with the integration of new gear once it is purchased.

Military exercises are an excellent means to test tactics and provide training opportunities for troops. You are probably already training your tactics, weapons, and strategy. However, you will miss your goals if there is weak battlefield communication with your allies. Here are five reasons why you should test coalition communications.

When we address communications on the technical side, we have to be honest in knowing that 90% of emergency management and public safety professionals don’t have an extensive base of knowledge on how the systems work or what happens in between the time we key up the radio and end our transmission. We do however; expect that our radios will work 99.9% of the time and that someone will be able to hear and respond to our call for help. Many states across the United States have to rebuild or upgrade their existing radio communication systems due to outdated systems or exceeding the limits of the current system as our towns and agencies grow.

“No matter how good a communication system is, it can, and will, fail at some point.” – David Goldschmitt , MD. 

In 2001 -2002, while assigned to the 557^th Military Police Company in the Republic of South Korea like other Military Police organizations and other units we conducted exercises to test our Standard Operating Procedures and reinforce collective and individual skills. For Military Police units, this included Law Enforcement Operations outside the concrete that makes up a city.