Information security--steps toward Utopia. (Simulation Approach).

"Network-centric" is today's buzzword in the matter of battlefield communications--at least as far as the United States' forces are concerned. Other countries that have embarked upon communications modernisation programmes are less ambitious, the British Army regarding digitisation as a step in the evolutionary process towards "network-enabled" warfare. This will lead to the conduct of war in a different way as it moves Britain from running a Clansman-based to a Bowman-based radio system.

With digitisation, broadband, fibre-optic links, laser communications and software programmable systems designed to ensure messages and data reach the right destination, tactical and strategic communications are surely nearing perfection. Well, not quite, and certainly not yet. Reports on the latest communications developments may suggest that problems are a thing of the past, but there are many cautionary tales that serve to remind us that perfection can still elude even the most modern armies.

Cautionary Tales

For example, British Army personnel in the Balkans became used to the need to call colleagues on their mobile phones to check frequencies when setting up links with their outdated Clansman radios. They also concluded that Serb forces could with ease eavesdrop on their `open' transmissions and again their mobile `phones were judged to be more secure. Another remarkable Balkans-related security `leak' concerned video surveillance transmitted via a secure satellite link to the US Navy in America but which was later returned via a commercial satellite.

This was picked up by a radio enthusiast and subsequently shown on TV. The same enthusiast in the UK has intercepted security transmissions regarding protection of the Royal Family and other VIPs, publishing the results on a web site registered in America. Apparently it is not illegal to own a scanner capable of intercepting security and military radio transmissions.

During the US invasion of Grenada, an Army officer wanted to call up naval fire support but found that the only way he could communicate with the Navy was to use a public payphone to call the Pentagon, which finally got the message through to the warships. It is said that the officer subsequently had difficulty in recovering the (unauthorised) costs debited to his credit card account. OK, some of these tales are taken from events that occurred several years ago, but communications difficulties are by no means a thing of the past.

When Taliban prisoners who had been escorted to the Qala-I-Jangi fortress in Mazare-e-Sharif, Afghanistan began an uprising, a CIA agent had to use his mobile phone to call the US Ambassador in Tashkent to call up air support. However, to be fair, although there may be deficiencies regarding communications between intelligence and operations units, interoperability between forward air controllers and attack aircraft are considered to be satisfactory in Afghanistan. Training courses in the use of Link 16 have paid off.

Training to be Prepared

Nevertheless, in matters of training these examples of `information insecurity' suggest that those expecting to employ the latest communications equipment should be prepared to seek alternatives. Moreover, it takes time for the latest and the best equipment to get into the hands of the squaddie in the front line who has grown accustomed to finding ways to overcome equipment deficiencies.

But as Bowman nears service entry with the British Army in March 2004 to open a new era in battlefield communications, a major training programme is getting underway. Fortunately, just as software is the key to the development of today's new combat aircraft and simulation is routinely used to progress flight tests and help to train pilots, so too software-based communications facilitates both modelling and training. Consequently, Westland has drawn on its experience in developing training systems for WAH-64 Apache air and ground crews, to produce classroom and simulation training in support of Bowman.

The size of the training task is immense, with some 68,000 service personnel in need of training between 2003 and 2007. Most trainees will be from the British Army, but some RAF and Royal Navy personnel will also require Bowman training. It is anticipated that it will take some six months to convert each army brigade, comprising 13 weeks of conversion and training, followed by team and collective training.

If the introduction of Bowman to British Army service will pose a major training challenge over the next few years, longer-term training needs are to be met by a Public Private Partnership (PPP) solution. Two industry consortia are currently in competition to run the new Defence Communications and Information Systems School, one of six tri-service centres of training excellence' proposed by the UK Defence Training Review.

America's Revolution

While the new British communications system is a giant (and long overdue) step, the US Department of Defense Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), expected to enter series production in 2005, is revolutionary. Said to be a software-defined system in which a computer is mated to a radio `front end,' JTRS will involve the initial production of more than 10,000 radios (eventually rising to 260,000), each of which will be able to communicate with one another.

While most of the 750,000 radios used by American services operate in a single frequency band and therefore cannot talk to one another, JTRS equipment will be able to transmit and receive voice, data and video over multiple channels simultaneously. Moreover, the software communications architecture of the new system will ensure that they will be able to talk to existing equipment. Furthermore, JTRS sets will be able to function as a bridge between US and other nations' systems, important in missions involving allies.

Thus true interoperability, more important that mere compatibility, should become possible eventually, although utopia is still some way off. But once again, the software-driven JTRS will ease the use of simulation in training personnel in its use.

But many armies around the world can only look with envy at the relatively few that have embarked upon massive communications re-equipment programmes and they will need to attend to their own information security training needs. What could assist is the British Army's systems approach to training, which was first developed in 1967 and its use made mandatory since 1987. A team of military and civilian training development specialists can be made available to carry out a training needs analysis and advise on the best solutions.

Accustomed to the use of modelling and simulation as an integral part in the development of C4ISR, the US Army Stricom is convinced that the use of simulation in training is much more effective that using manuals or even other computer-based training. Interestingly, Stricom is looking to the entertainment industry to bring near-realism to communications training.