International Operations at the Electronic Systems Center - Air Force division - Brief Article

DISAM Journal, Summer, 2001 by Leslie F. Kenne

It is with great pleasure that I introduce the Electronic Systems Center (ESC) in this issue of the DISAM Journal. As the Air Force's Center of Excellence for providing command, control and information systems to support the warfighter in war and peace, ESC is responsible for command and control enterprise integration throughout not only its parent command, Air Force Material Command, but the entire Air Force. As the ESC commander, one of my key challenges is to integrate the needs of the U.S. Air Force and those of our international partners to further our ability to interoperate and fight on the battlefield. At ESC our international and foreign military sales business is a key component of our product base and is vital to our ability to deliver interoperable, functioning war-fighting products. In the following articles you will be introduced to a number of those initiatives and products.

The ESC product lines are provided by our systems program offices (SPO). We have included articles from several of our SPOs, the Staff Judge Advocate, and a Joint team to show the breadth and depth of international operations throughout ESC.

* Our Global Air Traffic Operations/Mobility Command and Control SPO (ESC/GA) provides an overview of the process by which a foreign military sales project is started in ESC.

* The Enterprise Team article shows how three military services and a Joint Command cooperate to optimize investments, reduce overlap, and avoid redundancy.

* The Staff Judge Advocate Office (ESC/JA) describes how ensuring Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA) and other benefits to contractor technical experts accompanying American forces can save the U.S. government money and provide substantial benefits to the contractor.

* Our Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Integration SPO (ESC/SR) describes foreign comparative testing and exploiting commercial satellite imagery in the Eagle Vision family of systems.

* The Coalition Aerial Surveillance and Reconnaissance (CESAR) program is an exciting effort by seven North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations to develop and improve their ability to detect and track vehicles on or near the ground with radar sensors.

* And finally, our Crypto Logic Support Group describes its coordination with friendly nations in building information superiority based on tenets of information-in-warfare and information warfare.

Our International Operations Office (ES C/FA) is a functional support organization serving as the focal point for activities with other countries. In addition to this coordination role, ESC/FA works on many projects directly in coordination with the Associate Director for Civil Aviation, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations Headquarters U.S. Air Force. The following activities are covered in the article by Neil Planzer, the Associate Director for Civil Aviation, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations Headquarters U.S. Air Force.

* Regional Aerospace Initiative studies are U.S.-led bilateral initiatives with countries of Central and Eastern Europe, conducted in the spirit of North Atlantic Treaty Organization's Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. The goals of the initiatives are to establish a region-wide civil/military airspace management and air sovereignty system designed to enhance airspace management, command and control, military/civilian cooperation within a country, and cooperation throughout the region.

* Air Sovereignty Operations Centers combine air defense and air traffic control radar inputs provided by the country with an interoperability starter kit from the United States to form an integrated air picture of the entire country and surrounding territories. The ASOC was designed to accept the use of Western European radar data formats in order to best encourage cooperation, not only between civil and military airspace managers within a country, but within a region as well.

* Radar Interoperabiity and Life Cycle Upgrade Studies detail the requirements of modernizing a nation's older surveillance radars to ASOC standards.

* Navigational Aids Studies provide a systematic, incremental set of agreed-upon modifications required to modernize a nation's military navigational systems and landing aids to meet International Civil Aeronautics Organization and NATO standards.

* Command, Control, Communications and Computers studies develop systematic, incremental recommendations for a country to modernize and regionalize its command and control functions and processes.

* National Military Command Centers fuse the display of air, ground and sea assets of both military and civilian organizations in real time to provide a response package.

With increased coalition activities and the necessity for interoperability, international cooperation is a critical factor in systems development. The articles we have chosen to present provide a broad picture of how ESC is building closer ties with the international community and helping our warfighters keep the peace.