Joint-service warning network program stalled: Contractor decided to adapt JWARN technology for homeland defense mission.

A program to develop a digital network that could warn U.S. troops about potential nuclear, chemical and biological threats currently is on hold, largely as a result of internal squabbles between the Army and the Marine Corps. One contractor, meanwhile, has transitioned some of that technology into a similar system that would be marketed for U.S. homeland security.

The chemical-biological defense system is called the joint warning and reporting network (JWARN). It originally was designed to connect several detection systems into an overall command and control architecture, so forces in the field would have situational awareness about potential chemical or biological threats.

JWARN's mission is to allow the military services to collect, analyze, report and disseminate NBC agent detection, identification, location, and warning information in real time. A secondary role for JWARN is to help authorities react to an NBC attack by providing downwind hazard predictions.

As envisioned, JWARN would transfer data automatically from and to the actual detector! sensor, and provide commanders (and C4ISR-command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance--systems) with analyzed data and disseminate warnings down to the lowest level units in the battlefield. JWARN also would make NBC hazard prediction more accurate by integrating data from various sources into a single model.

"The goal of warning and reporting is to provide sufficient, accurate and timely information to the commanders at all levels through early and direct warning capabilities, so they assume appropriate protective postures and develop options to continue mission-essential operations," said the Defense Department's annual report on chemical and biological capabilities.

JWARN was supposed to be compatible with, but not duplicate existing equipment. Phase I started in 1998, when the first version of the software was released. Phase II, called engineering and manufacturing development, was planned for 2001. However, the program ran into trouble as a result of service infighting, mostly between the Army and the Marine Corps, said an industry source who asked to not be quoted by name.

The Marine Corps Systems Command manages the JWARN program. The command hosted an industry day for JWARN last October.

The Army did not necessarily object to the Marine Corps managing the program, but became concerned that the program was neglecting critical Army requirements, said Maj. Gen. John C. Doesburg, chief of the Army's Soldier and Biological Chemical Command. The Army's long-term modernization plan involves fielding a light, agile "objective force," Doesburg told National Defense. The Marine Corps "is not going in the same direction," so that became a problem in the JWARN program, he said. "We want assurances that JWARN will work in the objective force" and will not become obsolete.

"We are not sure that JWARN will meet the requirements" of the objective force, noted Doesburg. He said the program was on hold, but not necessarily cancelled. The Army is "stepping back, to make sure we have everything we need," he said. The Army has "some ideas on how to restructure JWARN" so it meets all services' requirements.

Company Investment

One of the JWARN competitors is Northrop Grumman's TASC division, in Reading, Mass. The company spent about $1.3 million bidding for JWARN.

The industry source speculated that the expenditure will not pay off, because JWARN may never come to fruition. "It's money right down the toilet," the source said.

The investment was supposed to make sense, the source explained, because JWARN would be a defense-wide system. "If you win the JWARN program, you own the whole NBC world."

Once the program starts again, other companies, Lockheed Martin among them, are expected to compete.

TASC recently started developing a system called DWARN, for Domestic Warning and Reporting Network. The system is a derivative of JWARN, said a Northrop Grumman official who requested anonymity. "Instead of tying it into the military, we would tie it into the civilian command and control," the official said. "It's not part of any kind of procurement right now, but we are working to take it to Coy. Tom Ridge." Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania, is the director of the White House Office for Homeland Security.

To dispel any kind of confusion, the company official stressed that Northrop is still competing for JWARN and that DWARN will be employed differently. "The military system has centralized control, while you can't have the same thing for local cities," the official explained.

According to Steve Ouzts, program manager at TASC, DWARN could link into all local databases within a city. It can tap into hospital documents, medical and disease information and even how many beds are vacant in that hospital. "You can check out capabilities of individual hospitals, what the supply levels are and who has the neutralizing agents on hand," said Ouzts.

Another application in DWARN is route planning, which helps first responders find the fastest routes for emergency vehicles. "Real-time links to weather sources [certain agents can spread fairly easily, depending on wind, cloud formation] also run into the calculation of the reports," said Ouzts.

DWARN could also provide a logistics capability for planning deliveries of supplies. According to Ouzts, the system also gives first responders the ability to manage the communication networks, report information in real time, page, and collect and integrate their reports.

A critical feature of DWARN is what the company has coined Best Track dispersion modeling, which uses intelligent agent software to mine the databases and come up with the best track, or course of action. A future version of Best Track will plug-and-play with other models developed by government and civilian agencies, said Ouzts.

He said each system would cost approximately $500,000. "That was too much for a city to bear last August, but maybe they would spend mote money today," he mid. "But now, after last September, it will be a much bigger priority."

One issue for DWARN is the incompatibility between the databases of each city. It will still take a long time until they can standardize their systems, said Ouzts. However, another Northrop official said he believes that the United States is starting to set up an infrastructure "to deal with large scale disasters in an organized manner."

The official said DWARN could be deployed at any time, but it is not supposed to be just at the city level. "This is the kind of system you need at a national level," the official said. "I wouldn't restrict it to cities, state and federal governments but to everything that deals with homeland security."

Right now, it would not do much good if only just one city has it. In fact, the idea for DWARN was conceived by the president of Litton Industries, which later was acquired by Northrop Grumman. The system was to be used for the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. At the time, the Seattle government said it could not afford such a system.

Northrop is planning to demonstrate DWARN to representatives from Ridge's office, probably in April or May. Company officials said the money spent on DWARN is in the "hundreds of thousands."

Sandra Erwin contributed to this report.