The new lightweight units can be carried in a backpack and are now being used worldwide in the fight against terrorism.

JEMPRS, which stands for Joint Enroute Mission Planning and Rehearsal System provides commanders at a base camp or at headquarters with a wide array of information and data that gives them a "real time" picture of what the soldiers in the field are experiencing.

The original units weighed over 250 pounds and could be mounted in vehicles, tanks, ships or planes. Over the past year, Dataline has developed the same capabilities in a module so compact and lightweight that it can be carried by a soldier in a backpack that weighs less than 75 pounds, depending on components.

Dataline is working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to have similar JEMPRS units to enhance his communications capabilities when he travels around the world.

"This concept was first developed just a little more than a year ago, and it has already been proven in the field," said Denise Robinson, president of Dataline.

"When we first began production, the products were readily accepted by the military. We are very pleased with the early results and are anticipating this technology will only become more in demand in the future."

JEMPRS provides the capability of accessing multiple networks at different security levels along with secure and non-secure telephones all simultaneously. These units utilize data compression technologies to optimize the bandwidth on any communications path such as satellites, ISDN, or wide area networks.

JEMPRS is a scalable system which is supporting user groups as small as two users and as large as 100 users in the system deployed for the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) in Iraq.

In essence, the soldiers in the field and the commanders at the rear are seeing exactly the same information at the same time, and can communicate with one another over a secure network. Both can also access other information sources simultaneously, such as commercial news outlets that may be reporting on the field of battle where the soldiers are involved.

JEMPRS first received attention from the Department of Defense when US Joint Forces Command deployed a JEMPRS unit that was used during the Millennium Challenge 02 training exercise. Later, commanders deploying to Iraq tasked Dataline to design and deploy models with specific capabilities that were unique to the theaters of operation they were entering.

Since then, Dataline has manufactured more than 60 of the JEMPRS units and delivered them to various U.S. military units throughout the world.

"Once we saw how much the commanders in the field wanted this capability, we immediately went to work to reduce its size," said Dr. Dave Glovier, chief technology officer of Dataline.

"We are very excited we have been able to reduce the size so significantly and quickly and still fulfill the requirements of the commanders and troops in the field."

The JEMPRS family of products and services meets the immediate needs of numerous users, including fixed headquarters, commanders and staffs on the move, forward command elements and small striking teams. The development of each unit begins with an in-depth user requirement analysis to ensure the user receives the capabilities needed at the lowest cost.

Dataline