Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
1/29/2016

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Emergency Operations revamped the agency’s mobile Emergency Communications Network (ECN) systems last year. The size of the ECN systems was cut by about 88 percent and the cost was cut by 60 percent, while communications pathways were increased by 300 percent, the NNSA said in a Jan. 22 press release.

While ECN mobile systems previously cost approximately $400,000, weighed 500 pounds, and provided satellite as the single communications source, the new systems cost roughly $145,000, weigh 60 pounds, and provide satellite, Internet, and cellular signal as communications sources, the NNSA said. It said this improvement will lead to “more effective and efficient communications for NNSA personnel deployed as part of the nation’s radiological and nuclear emergency response capability, helping to provide security to the nation from the threat of nuclear terrorism.”

The NNSA said in an emailed statement that the ECN systems “allow a diverse user group the ability to communicate via secure or non-secure voice, video, and data in an operator-friendly manner.” One of these next-generation systems has been deployed to Albuquerque, N.M., and another system to Las Vegas, both in operational support roles, the NNSA said. The systems are part of a “dynamic enhancement of Emergency Management Communications” supporting lab operations, an effort that the NNSA plans to continue at least until fiscal 2019. The NNSA said “this multi-pronged approach will include cyber and non-cyber related equipment and infrastructure” and will “result in increased connectivity from a bandwidth and classification perspective” for the agency.