The benefits of a network tasking order in combat search and rescue missions

Networked communications play a crucial role in United States Armed Forces operations. As the military moves towards more network centric (net-centric) operations, it becomes increasingly important to use the network as effectively as possible with respect to the overall mission. This article advocates the use of a network tasking order (NTO), which allows operators to reason about the network based on asset movement, capabilities, and communication requirements. The NTO is similar to the air tasking order, which gives insight into the plan for physical assets in a military mission. In this paper we illustrate the benefit of an NTO in a combat search and rescue (CSAR) scenario. While demonstrating the CSAR mission, we assume the use of the joint tactical radio system (JTRS) for communication. Our premise is that the knowledge in an NTO can be used to achieve better CSAR missions and yield better decision-making opportunities to the mission commanders. Our results show that the end-to-end (ETE) delay with the aid of an NTO in high traffic conditions is shorter compared to those without the NTO and bandwidth requirements are also lower. In low traffic conditions, the ETE delay is shorter without the aid of an NTO, but at the cost of higher bandwidth utilization.