White
House Communications Agency Chevrolet Suburbans
These six Former Secret Service "Roadrunners" will
soon support special operators during crisis
response missions in the United States.
Special Operations
Command North, or SOCNORTH, is in the
process of converting six Chevrolet
Suburbans to better meet the needs of its
Crisis Response Team. The White House
Communications Agency used these already
heavily modified "Roadrunners" to provide
critical command, control and communications
support for United States Presidential
motorcades. We now have pictures of the
outside and inside of these Chevrolet
Suburbans that offer a unique look at their
previous lives and future roles.
Air Force Space Command (AFSPC),
which is managing the vehicle modification
contract for SOCNORTH, posted this set of photos
on the U.S. government's
main contracting website FedBizOpps on July 24,
2019. The headquarters for AFSPC, SOCNORTH, and
U.S. Northern Command are all at Peterson Air
Force
Base in Colorado. The six Roadrunners are
presently there and the Air Force says it would
prefer whichever contractor it hires to do the
work on the base,
though it is willing to consider offers from
companies wishing to use facilities up to 80
miles away.
It is not entirely clear when SOCNORTH acquired
the Roadrunners for its Crisis Response Team
(CRT) or how long they have been in service with
the White
House Communications Agency (WHCA) before that.
Last year, photos emerged of a Ford F350 based
Roadrunner replacement, indicating that the
WHCA might begin to retire the Chevrolet
Suburban-based types, which is likely how these
examples became available to the CRT in the
first place.
It's also not clear if the CRT has been
employing these vehicles operationally or in
training already.
The pictures show the SUVs still
have their characteristic roof-mounted base for
the original configuration's antenna array, but
with an X-shaped UHF satellite
communications antenna in the center rather than
the cakepan-shaped one seen on more recent WHCA
vehicles. Roadrunners have also been seen in the
past
with a more dome-shaped GV2432 UHF satellite
communications antenna. Markings on the roof do
seem to show where a circular antenna of some
sort had
been installed before.
Above: WHCA Roadrunner with the
cakepan - style satellite communications antenna
on top.
Above: A closeup of the X-shaped
satellite communications antenna on one of
SOCNORTH's Roadrunner,
with the apparent mounting point for a circular
antenna also visible.
Above:A view of the rear
portion of the roof mount with additional
antennas still in place.
From what we can see of the
Roadrunners in their present configuration, it
is clear that WHCA vehicles are extremely packed
in the back. Pictures
show a large equipment rack in the center and
two additional ones all the way to the rear.
SOCNORTH's CRT wants the center rack and the
left rear
rack gone entirely, along with the cabling that
goes with them.
The right rear rack will hold a
variety of new networking equipment, including
one Cisco router and three DTECH servers per
vehicle.
Each vehicle will also have three hardened
laptops that can connect to the vehicle's
onboard network.
Above:From left to
right, the center, left rear, and right rear
equipment racks.
Above:Server equipment,
right, and laptops, that will go into each one
of SOCNORTH's vehicles.
Up in front, SOCNORTH wants each
vehicle's center console to hold and power two
AN/PRC-152 Multiband Handheld Radio
tied to a larger AN/PRC-117 Multiband Manpack
Radio. Both of these are common radios
throughout the U.S. military.
The center console also needs to
have holders for one walkie-talkie-like Harris
RO handheld satellite radio, also known as the
Distributed Tactical Communications System
(DTCS), and an Iridium SHOUT nano, a handheld
satellite communications
device capable of sending and receiving text
messages and serving as a GPS tracking beacon.
Above: The center console that
SOCNORTH wants completely revamped. A Harris RO
handheld radio is sitting in the right
cupholder,
while three Iridium SHOUT
nanos are in the left one.
Above: Another view of the
console.
SOCNORTH's requirements also
indicate that the vehicles will be able to serve
as a hub for a semi-fixed command center, as
well. The external power panel,
carried over from the WHCA Roadrunner
configuration, had to be able to support a
dismounted Panther satellite communications
terminal, and its associated
antenna, a system that is also known with the
U.S. special operations community as the Special
Operations Forces Deployable Node Light (SDN-L)
V3B.
The contracting documents also
call for retaining a number of antenna bases,
cabling, and power connections within the
vehicle in order to provide capacity
for adding new and additional systems down the
line. This could include higher capacity
on-the-move satellite communications and
data-sharing capabilities
using improved hardened and secure networks and
terminals, such as the systems the Army has
developed part of successive iterations of its
Warfighter
Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T).
Above: A close-up, at left, along
with a wider shot of the external power panel on
one of the CRT vehicles.
There is otherwise no
mention of any modifications to the
vehicles on the automotive side, which
isn't necessarily surprising. The
Roadrunners were already specially
configured to meet the power generation
needs and other performance requirements
that the WHCA had previously laid out.
It's not clear exactly how
SOCNORTH's CRT expects to use the vehicles
now. A primer on SOCNORTH, as a whole,
that Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Collins,
the Plans Division Chief for the command's
Strategy, Plans, and Policy directorate,
or J5, wrote for Small Wars Journal
last year described the CRT's mission as
such:
"The SOCNORTH
SOCFWD-Crisis Response is a command
element built from the SOCNORTH staff
that is capable of deploying within
four hours to provide Command and
Control (C2) of DoD assets and
situational awareness to CDR NORTHCOM
in times of crisis. Primarily in
support of the FBI [Federal Bureau of
Investigation], the SOCNORTH crisis
response team postures itself to
rapidly assess the situation,
coordinate with lead federal agencies
when needed and send valuable updates
through the DoD chain of command to
assume a proactive response for
supporting the interagency. In
addition to the domestic portion,
SOCNORTH is developing the ability to
perform the same function in the
foreign areas of the AOR. This will
include increased coordination with
the Department of State (DoS) and
diplomatic facilities to ensure the
proper reception, staging and onward
integration (RSOI) of DoD support and
resources in the event of a crisis."
In addition, acquiring the
six Roadrunners helped the CRT provide
"enhanced interoperability and
effectiveness in communications to defend
the homeland," according to the public
LinkedIn page for Wesley Drake. That page
says he was the Communications Senior
Enlisted Advisor within SOCNORTH's
Command, Control, Communications,
Computers, and Cyber Directorate, or
J6.
This would strongly imply
that the SUVs will continue to provide
important command and control functions
for CRT members, including being able to
link together with other U.S. government
agencies during domestic or foreign
missions. This kind of interoperability
would be invaluable when responding to a
large domestic terrorist attack or other
major crises, especially ones that trigger
so-called "continuity of government"
planning and involve locating and then
moving large numbers of senior U.S.
officials to safe, hardened locations.
During these kinds of scenarios, the CRT
could easily find itself deeply embedded
within a broader interagency task force
with elements from the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) or the Department
of Justice.
Above: A member of an FBI
SWAT Team assigned to the Tampa Field
Office, at right, and another special
operator during a multi-national special
operations forces demonstration on the
sidelines of the annual Special Operations
Forces Industry Conference in Tampa,
Florida in 2018.
Still,
SOCNORTH's planned configuration for the
vehicles does sound less robust than the
one found on the WCHA's Roadunners At the
same time, the CRT's command and control
requirements are also unlikely to be as
demanding as those for personnel charged
with following around the President of the
United States and ensuring that America's
chief executive remains in direct contact
with the rest of the U.S. government,
including the National Command Authority
in case of the need to order a nuclear
strike, at all times.
Using the
modified Chevrolet Suburbans also
generally makes sense for the CRT, which
expects to find itself often operating
with civilian agencies, such as the FBI,
DHS, or the Department of State, which
also typically use similar civilian-style
Chevrolet Suburbans. SOCNORTH's personnel
are less likely to stand out with these
vehicles and they would be far less likely
to add additional logistical
requirements for mission planning.
If nothing
else, SOCNORTH has made what appears to be
a very sensible decision to take
Roadrunners the WHCA was likely working to
get rid of anyways and use them to bolster
the CRT's vehicle fleets without having to
go through the often lengthy and costly
process of acquiring all-new vehicles and
having them modified to meet various U.S.
military and other government standards.
When fully modified, the SUVs look set to
provide an important set of capabilities
as the CRT continues to expand and evolve
to take on greater responsibilities both
within the United States and elsewhere in
North America.
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