Technology Delivers Agility For Combat Commanders

Signal, Dec 2006 by Munichiello, Dave

Size, weight, cost and personnel concerns amplify demand for communications system built on flexible framework.

More rapidly deployable, reliable, secure and capable communications systems are defining the next generation of communications gear for both the U.S. Defense Department and industry. One improved capability, which supports military contingencies as well as national emergencies, is based on a command and control package that incorporates everything over Internet protocol.

The Small Command and Control over Internet Protocol (SC^sup 2^IP) package, pronounced skip, extends communications services from the Global Information Grid (GIG) to the warfighter through Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) teleports. Everything over Internet Protocol (EoIP) technology enables bulky legacy circuit switches and serial cabling to be replaced by slimmer Internet protocol (IP) switches, routers and Ethernet cabling.

The Joint Communications Support Element (JCSE), which as a core competency provides operational agility to combatant commanders and their joint task forces, is the organization behind this innovation. It has conducted thousands of hours of engineering and testing during the past 18 months to finalize the development, accreditation and certification of this communications architecture. The JCSE is a joint airborne unit postured to provide joint task force and joint special operations task force communications. It is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, and falls under the U.S. Joint Forces Command.

In the past six months, the Joint Staff has operationally tasked the newly certified system to support classified missions in Iraq, civilian agencies during national emergencies, the recent noncombatant evacuation operation mission in Cyprus and other U.S. and foreign missions worldwide. Based on these operational successes, units throughout the Defense Department are acquiring and employing SC^sup 2^IP technology to meet the rigorous demands and time lines of their missions.

The JCSE's innovation has been certified by a myriad of Defense Department approval authorities. SC^sup 2^IP went through extensive information assurance and system security accreditation testing by DISA's Field security Office in December 2005. Once the equipment had passed every test, the JCSE took it to the Joint Interoperability Test Command in February 2006 for four weeks of in-depth interoperability analysis. SC^sup 2^IP and the corresponding GIG-Entry architecture became the department's first EoIP package to be interoperability-certified by the Joint Staff. This official certification coupled with DISA's security assessment resulted in the first approval to operate granted to an EoIP system.

The JCSE's architecture was engineered from the "pointy end backward," optimizing the tactical package for simplicity and reduced cube and footprint. The SC^sup 2^IP design is in line with DISA's concept of converged network services. Each Defense Information Systems Network (DISN) data service is hardware-encrypted and tunneled through a single converged private network. The voice over Internet protocol network exists in the secure convergence network and is unaffected by data services. This merging of services ensures both simplicity and security for tactical users.

SC^sup 2^IP's design is simple because each service can be extended in the same modular manner. Whether the tactical operator is providing customers with the nonsecure Internet protocol router network (NIPRNET), secret Internet protocol router network (SIPRNET) or Combined Enterprise Regional Information Exchange System or with another organization-specific network, only one small transit case, the correct keymat and some Ethernet cabling are needed to connect users to an additional network.

The system is secure because each service is separated by a Type 1 High Assurance Internet Protocol Encryptor Interoperability Specification-compliant device. Disruptions on any single network cannot affect the convergence network or any other service. As a result, anomalies or security breaches on NIPRNET do not affect the user's command and control (C^sup 2^) systems, such as the SIPRNET, video teleconferencing and the Defense Red Switch Network, or even the nonsecure voice network. The SC^sup 2^IP design provides for the same separation of services and isolation of vulnerabilities that exist in the circuit-based/legacy environment, but it takes advantage of drastic reductions in cost, personnel and size of EoIP.

SC^sup 2^IP is small enough to fit into a sport utility vehicle, yet it is capable of supporting 40 to 60 users with the Defense Switched Network, DISN Video Systems-Global, NIPRNET and SIPRNET as well as video teleconferencing and other services within minutes. Its size allows the system to be checked as baggage on commercial aircraft and transported worldwide. This global agility, coupled with the communications capability that it brings to the fight, has made SC^sup 2^IP the preferred communications system for the JCSE and many other organizations, including special operations forces teams worldwide.