In preparation for the Army's second Network Integration Evaluation - NIE 12.1 - in Oct/Nov 2011, hundreds of Soldiers, system engineers, program managers and developers spend months providing full-time acquisition expertise, integration and training support at sprawling motor pool facilities located at Fort Bliss, Texas, and White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, to support the Army's NIE efforts.

This ensures Soldiers receive evaluation-ready capabilities and are properly trained on their uses prior to moving to the field. By doing the integration work upfront during the NIE process, the Army is able to deliver fully-integrated capability solutions to its deployed forces quicker, and more often.