Keeping bits and bytes in order.

The adaptation of modern communications and IT solutions to the requirements of the modern war-fighter is creating a mark on the battlefield and this has been identified as a revolution in military affairs that has the potential to change the shape of warfare in a way that has not been seen since the invention of modern firearms. The networking of the battlefield has the potential to speed up decision-making cycles, give commanders better and more integrated forms of information and allow access to a wider variety of capabilities.

Although the potential for this revolution can already be seen on today's battlefield, and armed forces continue to strive for its integration the fully networked battlefield is not yet a reality. Many of the elements needed are now part of the arsenal of modern armed forces. Communications systems have been vastly improved and from the tactical level upwards are now capable of handling not only voice communications but also a vast quantity of data. That data is being produced by newer, more advanced surveillance technologies and sophisticated weapons systems. The logistical systems needed to sustain these modern technologies and all the other paraphernalia of today's fighting force has created its own market, with innovation pushing the developmental envelope.

However, the major challenge is how to interconnect all these new sources of information and integrate them with command systems coherently and intelligibly so that they are useful to the commander. It is this challenge that the armed forces and defence industry across the globe are turning to and attempting to provide solutions for and it will be a major challenge.

Qinetiq, Britain's top national defence laboratory, cites the journey to Network Enabled Capability thus: "NEC is an initiative not a programme. This means that the aspirations for NEC can only be delivered through the co-ordination of individual projects, brought together to meet the needs of the higher level military capabilities, and an understanding of how these impact the other lines of development."

Put to Task

There is an increasing awareness that the task ahead is a difficult one and that the provision of more and more raw data is not in itself a way to guarantee a networked battlespace. The armed forces have realized that there is a need to transform the raw data in to something usable.

The next step has been to find ways of suitably fusing that data and feeding it in to command networks in a form that gives the commander additional useful knowledge and not information overload. It is at this interface that much of the work is now being concentrated.

At the tactical level Tadiran Communications has developed its Aw@renet advanced situational awareness system to meet these requirements. The Aw@renet is an integrated software solution that provides powerful IP connectivity to combat units and commanders at different echelon levels. Aw@renet supports a real-time common operational picture, self-navigation tools overlayed on a variety of raster, orthophoto and vector-based maps, advanced terrain analysis tools, tactical message distribution (SMS) and a dynamic view of the complete organisational structure.

The Aw@renet provides a complete picture to all levels of action and seamlessly melds a variety of Tadiran communication hardware building blocks to complete the system, including the company's HF-600 and CNR-9000 tactical radios, the Tacter laptop computer, handheld RPDA digital assistant, to name a few standards.

A large number of questions is being asked; such as what do commanders need to know to make command decisions, does this differ at the various levels of the command chain and how should that knowledge be presented to the commander in order for him to comprehend it succinctly.

In many ways the US with its large armed forces and budget continues to be the world leader in terms of moving towards networked warfighting. The country's defence industry is well versed in the necessary requirements and is backed by world dominance of US industry, and more generally in IT development. Doctrinally America's Network Centric Warfare, as the name implies, puts the network at the centre of battlefield operations and is central to the transformation of US forces, which has been developing at pace since the end of the Cold War. As a result a great deal of work is being conducted into how to mesh the various programmes and requirements together at a command level.

Following Procedure

Much of the work has been informed by the US Joint Vision 2020 concept document that was published in 2000 with the full endorsement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The document calls for the US armed forces to achieve full-spectrum dominance through elements that include the evolution of information technology to integrate the varying all-source intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems that the country is procuring.

In order to expedite the process, late last year the US Joint Forces Command inaugurated its Joint Systems Integration Command (Jsic), the evolution of the former Joint Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) Battle Center. The Jsic's mission will be to collaborate with the C4 Systems Directorate and Joint Requirements and Integration Directorate to develop, evaluate and demonstrate new capabilities. The aim is to target key command and control systems and get them out in to the field as quickly as possible through integration of advanced prototype systems into existing capabilities. The Jsic has a number of projects underway, including the deployment in 2004 of the Joint Task Force Commander Executive Command and Control package to support commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. The package allows commanders to gain access to both unclassified and classified networks at command locations and is transportable by military utility vehicle.

At the highest operational level the US is developing something that it calls the Global Information Grid (Gig), which is an all-encompassing network architecture designed to enable all three services to share information. The Gig is based on the Defense Information Systems Network, a 1990s project to bring together all of the single service information systems together in a single network, and all the high-level C2 systems including the Defense Message System, Global Command and Control System and the Global Combat Support System will be accessed via the Gig.

In order to provide elements to the network each service is also developing its own architecture and systems. The US Navy has ForceNet. Amongst the elements of this is the Navy/Marine Corps Intranet, a seven billion dollar programme prime contracted by EDS. The US Air Force has the C2 Constellation/ConstellationNet and the US Army project is LandWarNet.

As Gig has evolved there has been an increasing need for more bandwidth that has led to the Gig-Bandwidth Extension programme, which will upgrade some 100 facilities. In addition, there is also an attempt to improve access to the system. For deployed forces this is currently through the Standardized Tactical Entry Point that gives access via the US military's X-band satellites. In the future the hope is that access can be granted via a variety of access points utilizing both military and commercial satellite communications.

Win Tactical

Despite these developments the majority of access continues to be from fixed points and access to the network for mobile elements of deployed forces, especially for the army is an issue that the US is also seeking to address. For the army the solution will be provided via the Joint Tactical Radio System and the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (Win-T).

Win-T is aimed at extending Gig to the tactical level and providing commanders with access to high-capacity C2 systems at the manoeuvre level. Although the exact outline of the programme has yet to be worked through, a joint team of General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract to develop the project last year. The aim of awarding the contract early was to speed up development of the programme and to allow the two companies to cooperate on development. General Dynamic's C4 Systems business will prime contract the programme with Lockheed Martin providing its support to the prime contract team.

Although Block I of Win-T is scheduled to go into production in 2009 the full system, which will go through to further iterations is not expected to come in to service until 2016. In order to provide capability in the interim the army is also developing a largely off-the-shelf solution and legacy equipment based system called Joint Network Transport Capability. A major element of this will be General Dynamics C4 Systems' Joint Network Node (JNN).

Once up and running the JNN will give access to the network to brigade and battalion level command posts. The system is mounted on a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle and the communications package and provides for access to both non-secure and secure voice communications over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as well as non-secure and secure network access. The JNN also includes a facility for secure multipoint/multi-session battlefield video conferencing. The programme has been widely successful. Following the pacing of an initial contract for engineering development in early 2004 the first JNN was delivered to 3rd Infantry Division in August 2004 so that it would be able to deploy to Iraq with the system, which it did in December.

Although the US is the front-runner in much of the work that is being done, other nations are also drawing up their own concepts of the networked battlefield and working towards putting the necessary C2 systems in order.

The Euro Vision

In Europe Eads is playing a major part in the development of the networked battlefield because of the number of systems it has already developed. Its Franco-German heritage means that simultaneously it has a number of differing C2 solutions. In the middle of 2004 the company announced it was merging its various C2 products in order to meet the common future requirements of its customers. At the higher level the company is looking to merge its Java Open Common Operational Picture software, an integral part of Belgium's strategic Command Information System (CIS), with the German equivalent. At the tactical level the company is looking to increase the functionality of Faust to incorporate elements currently provided by the separate brigade and divisional system Heros 2/1.

Eads has also developed the NetCos (Network Centric Operations Simulation) synthetic environment for the design, evaluation and demonstration of network centric operations and systems. The system can reproduce a realistic virtual battlefield that embraces the entire sensor-to-shooter chain--including the command, control and information networks. Modelling, simulation and experimentation capabilities support the customer in designing network-enabled capabilities.

Prototyping systems such as NetCos and Saab Systems' NetC4I are the foundations on which many systems of today have been, and those of tomorrow are being designed and built.

The British armed forces are guided by the NEC concept, which is somewhat less ambitious than NCW. Realising that Britain does not have the resources to attempt the total dominance that the US seeks, the Ministry of Defence has developed NEC as a distinctly British reaction to the ongoing revolution in military affairs.

NEC places the network not at the centre of doctrine, but gives it prominence in the development of the armed forces because of the potential rewards it could bring. The network is seen as giving an enabling capability that will allow British warfighters to undertake their tasks more quickly and efficiently reducing strain on what are already overstretched resources. At least that is the ambitious goal. At various levels all three services have or are putting in place the infrastructure needed to 'enable the network', one example being the British Army's Bowman tactical communications system. But again it is the high-level C2 systems that will turn the mass of information into useful knowledge that the commander can use.

Again, as in the US, the UK is using a variety of methods to gauge the effectiveness of its concept and develop the appropriate architecture and systems. One of these is the Network, Integration, Test and Experimentation works (Niteworks). Niteworks is a partnership between the British Ministry of Defence and the defence industry led by BAE Systems, but also involving AMS, Eads, EDS Defence, General Dynamics, MBDA, QinetiQ, Raytheon Systems and Thales. The hub of Niteworks is BAE's Battlespace Management Evaluation Centre, located at the company's Farnborough site. The focus of the programme is to conduct a number of projects aimed at developing and integrating the C2 systems needed to fully realize the NEC goals of the armed forces.

Britain recently achieved initial operational capability for its Joint Operations Picture (Jop). The core of Jop is the Joint Operations Command System developed by EDS Defence, which it runs over. Jop provides commanders with a range of information across the spectrum of military operations as well as providing a graphical representation of the current battlefield situation. Among the tools are: a secure intranet, a Jop explorer tool, a structure tool, a geospatial display and picture manager and specialist viewers for use with imagery. The various tools and applications allow Jop to give commanders a shared situational awareness.

Boa is France's solution to some of the issues tossed up by the networking conundrum. Literally translating as the "air-land operational bubble", Boa will attempt to integrate the various digitised elements of the French armed forces into a coherent whole. A consortium led by Thales, but also including Giat, Sagem, MBDA and Eads, is in charge of progressing the project, which is in its early stages. Among the things that it will need to grapple with is how to incorporate the information that will be provided by the Fantassin a Equipements et Liaisons INtegrees (Felin) future soldier system in to the higher-level C2 systems. Sagem has a 796 million [euro] contract to develop the first stage of Felin.

However, it is not just the large military powers that have seen the need to improve communications on the networked battlefield. Norway is pursuing a bottom up approach to the problem. Rather than trying to impose a readymade conceptual solution from the top the Norwegian armed forces have grown their new C2 systems from baseline developments in communications and command structures. This has allowed them to concentrate on getting into service incremental improvements that are leading towards full digitisation of the armed forces.

Switzerland is also taking a more modest approach to the problem and has recently tested a new tactical-level C2 system. The Swiss armed forces have contracted Thales Switzerland to provide a testbed for its Fuhrungsinformationssystem Heer C4I requirement. The basis of the testbed will be Amper Programas' Zodiaco system, itself a derivative of Spain's Simacet formation CIS. The system is fully compatible with the country's existing Tauro battalion-and-below battle management system and can be used at corps, division or brigade level.

The aim for many countries is to develop systems that are fully compatible with major players, such as the US, and with other likely coalition partners both for warfighting and peacekeeping operations. This is an increasingly difficult proposition, as some countries, particularly the US, are moving ahead at such a rapid rate. During the recent war in Iraq the British warfighters found it difficult to connect with US forces and operate at the same tempo because of the US lead in terms of understanding and developing a networked battlefield. Britain's confinement to operations in and around Basra was in part an acknowledgement that the UK did not have the level of sophistication needed to operate in conjunction with US forces.

Among the solutions to the question of interoperability is Nato's Multilateral Integration Programme (Mip). The Mip seeks to engage all the potential partners in operations and ensure that the various national solutions being developed will be interoperable on a networked battlefield. However, what is now certain is that even if some countries remain unable to fulfil the requirements of a fully networked battlefield others are already moving ahead to that goal. The most important features of that battlefield are not the individual sensor and weapon systems, but the higher-level C2 systems that will allow the busy commander to make effective use of these networks.

Good Idea ... But Will it Work?

Work in Sweden to test specific programme effectiveness comes from Saab Systems, who developed its NetC4I system. NetC4I is a network-centric C4ISR framework designed for prototyping, implementing and integrating command and control systems that are under development. The platform independent system is capable of running on Unix, Mac OS, Linux, Windows and other operating systems, thereby providing open flexibility for the end-user. NetC4I helps study network-based technologies and methodologies and is useful for creating prototypes, demonstrating NCW concepts and ideas and for evaluating new command, control and decision support functionality.

inputs by Johnny Keggler