Warfighters Need Faster, Improved Access to Information

Signal, Dec 2006 by Boland, Rita

U.S. military and government leaders seek partnership with industry in communications.

The U.S. Defense Department is shifting away from building its own communications tools and services and is reaching out to the private sector for help in providing information to those who need it. The public sector is seeking to form partnerships with industry based on open standards, network centricity and collaboration between developers and end users to supply tools to the troops before the technology is obsolete.

Leaders from all four branches of the military, the Defense Department and private industry as well as representatives from foreign nations converged on Washington, D.C., October 23-25, to attend MILCOM 2006 and discuss the future of military communications. Several themes arose during the three days as speakers and panels described various methods and requirements to provide warfighters with the tool they need most-information.

"It's all about the information. Information is our greatest weapon-is America's greatest weapon," stated Lt. Gen. Charles E. Croom Jr., USAF, director, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), and commander, Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations, during a panel discussion. He also summed up the importance of providing troops with the ability to obtain the data they need.

Information is being shared in a new way through the vision of network centricity, which moves data horizontally and vertically instead of from point to point. To achieve network centricity, the communications field has to undergo a transformation in mindset and culture, related Vice Adm. Nancy E. Brown, USN, director, command, control, communications and computer systems/J-6, the Joint Staff. During her keynote address, she called on industry to help meet the military's goals.

"Our collective efforts are essential to this nation's ability to enable net-centric forces today and tomorrow," Adm. Brown said. She emphasized that military and industry need to work to increase interoperability, lower developmental costs, improve force readiness, diminish development risk, enhance warfighter effectiveness and reduce system cost sustainability.

The members of a panel on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology titled "COTS is Ready for Wideband Datalinks and SATCOM Processing" explained that the technology is mature enough to perform effectively a wide array of processing solutions using open standards. By using COTS products instead of custom-made products, the military can save time and money. The Defense Department can buy technology updates for obsolete equipment in the same way personal technology users do.

The modeling and simulation panel looked at the difficulties in creating realistic models. Dr. Marty Stytz, chief principal research scientist and engineer, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, gave a presentation on human behavior modeling and retrospective and future challenges for command, control and communications. "Getting inside enemies' minds and having elite, trained forces are crucial [to winning battles]," Stytz shared. "Unfortunately, it's really hard to do." Human behavior modeling is challenging because of the uncertainties in human decision making, he said. For instance, in current conflicts, understanding why suicide bombers choose to kill themselves and re-creating the situation in a simulation are demanding tasks. "It's very hard-and I can't emphasize this enough, it's very hard to model what makes a person become a suicide bomber," Stytz said.

He also called for models that address asymmetric warfare and concluded that human behavior modeling is behind the curve but has a solid foundation. Researchers and developers know the actions they need to take, but cost and time are major obstacles. Panelists also informed the audience that the Defense Department is working to improve standards on modeling and simulation tools.

Tom Brokaw, former anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, discussed patriotism and improving the political situation in the United States during an address. He spoke of the sacrifices made by those in the military and told the audience it is time for all Americans to re-enlist in their support of the country's troops. "It's a duty and a burden that ought not be borne by those in uniform and our military families alone," Brokaw stated. Brokaw suggested that the technology represented in the audience was in the seminal phase, and he described the benefits and disadvantages of technology developed over the past 100 years.

DISA hosted its industry day during MILCOM, at which 18 key agency officials, including Gen. Croom, answered questions from the audience. The general challenged audience members to ask his staff difficult questions and emphasized that DISA wants to partner with industry to find solutions for military communications needs. Throughout the dialogue between the audience and staff members, DISA officials reiterated their commitment to finding available technologies instead of creating new ones and to improving acquisition and requirements. Leaders want to speed the acquisition cycle, which would allow them to stay current with emerging technologies, and to simplify requirements for programs. Gen. Croom told the audience he would like to buy more managed services. "We'd like to pay you by use," he said. "And if you want to play, you've got to sign up." DISA recently awarded its first capacity-on-demand contract for server processing.