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The battle command systems to be taught at Sagami Depot’s Mission Command Training Center include:

* Command Post of the Future: Provides a commander with a wide range of information about his area of operations. During Operation Tomodachi, this system was used to track the position of equipment and personnel, food, water and ships.

* The Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System: Tracks and controls objects such as artillery shells, missiles, rockets and even aircraft. It has already been fielded in Japan.

* The Battle Command Sustainment Support System: Tracks logistics, movements of people coming in and out of an area, injuries, and supplies. This system was also used during Operation Tomodachi to track personnel and equipment and non-governmental agencies working in the disaster zone.

* The Distributed Common Ground System: Collects information about an area of concern. In Army lingo it is an “intelligence machine” that could be used to track whether people are in a disaster zone, the level of destruction and road, bridge and port availability. It will be used in Japan in the near future.

* Blue Force Tracker: Uses GPS signals to track equipment and personnel on the battlefield. It has been partially fielded in Japan.

* The Tactical Ground Reporting System (TiGR): Allows individual soldiers at the small team level to report on what they see while they are moving around an area of operations. In a disaster, they could report things like blocked roads or damaged train tracks. It will be fielded in Japan in the near future.

— Seth Robson

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