Managing the bits and bytes.

Irrespective of the nationality of the military involved, information management can be broken down into four key objectives: increasing the speed and quality of command decisions, radically improving the commander's situational understanding, while reducing the size of the forward deployed command staff, and freeing the commander from the physical constraints of the command post.

The key enabler in all this is the ability of communication system designers to widen the pipe through which voice, data and real time video images can be transported, not only between the command post and its associated units hut also within the command post itself. The latter normally consists of groups of vehicles distributed across the battlefield, but in the future may be located outside the theatre of operations. To avoid overloading the staff, and for the command team to remain inside the enemy's decision cycle, information must be delivered in a distilled form. Anecdotal evidence, repeated by senior military figures in Britain and in the United States, suggests that commanders in Afghanistan became unduly interested in real-time drone imagery of one small clement of an operation--much to the detriment of overall battle management. To be successful, the users of information technology solutions must be able to harness this overwhelming amount of information in order to make decisive, immediate and intelligent decisions in a dynamic tactical environment.

Reachback

There has been a significant growth in the volume of information, in particular real-time information, and indeed it is still growing. At the same time there is a clamour for the transformation of Cold War armies into small, agile, distributed units that rely on information-driven situational awareness and superior planning. There is a fundamental contradiction between both military trends.

The problems of information overload for the commander caused by digitisation are also being alleviated by digitisation via the concept of reachback. The communications that it provides give the battlefield commander a secure, virtual staff that is functionally unlimited in terms of its size, its access to expertise and to the information available, while at the same time it reduces the size of the command stall battlefield presence.

The static Marine Expeditionary Force Command Center (MCC), based at Camp Pendleton in California and completed in June 2002, is one example of how this operates in practice. The concept of reachback is the provision of secure, reliable, high bandwidth communication links between a deployed headquarters and support facilities outside the theatre. The latter contains much larger staffs able to assimilate and analyse information from a variety of sources, thereby providing the forward-based battlefield commander with expert advice, intelligence and options that he would not otherwise have.

The five rooms al the heart of the MCC illustrate the importance to the future command post of both information visualisation and long-range communications. The MCC is divided into a 150-seat auditorium, the Current Operations Center, Operation Planning Team room, Intelligence Operation Center and a G2 conference room, which all have large screen facilities. These screens are about ten metres wide and can receive up to nine imagery feeds displayed "picture-in picture' on each screen. The Operation Planning Team room has the capability to display 3-D imagery that can be used for battle damage assessment. The facility can also conduct multi-point video teleconferencing between both land based and seaborne sites during operations. The Marine Expeditionary Force Command Center itself does not provide new communications systems: rather it provides plugs for outside sources of established information. It is equipped with 170 workstations with access to the Department of Defense's networks, receiving information from databases across fixed communications, which, because of bandwidth or classification, would not normally be sent to a frontline commander.

The large numbers of staff in the 2128 [m.sup.2] MCC building would be difficult to support and protect on the battlefield, and would be antithetical to the concept of rapid, tactically mobile operations. Nonetheless. its very size enables multiple information sources to be accessed and reviewed and for recommendations to be made, tasks which would overload a deployed staff.

The command centre works because it has access to sufficient military satellite communications to support its role. Traditionally the preserve of the United States, high throughput satellite links connected to frontline units are now becoming available to other nations. Elbit Systems' Globalight, for example, is a manpack deployed Very Small Aperture Terminal (Vsat) system that can be set-up in ten minutes and which uses Ku-band commercial satellites capable of sending and receiving up to three Mbps. The Capsat Messenger system from Denmark's Thrane & Thrane is another manpack unit supplying high-speed data, voice and IP transmission at rates of up to 64 kbps. The Capsat system gives recon, surveillance or other forward units a portable satellite terminal for sharing encrypted communication.

Picture = Thousand Words

Militaries have been turning to display systems to present information to the commander. Ultra Electronics, funded by the British Ministry of Defence's research programme, has developed the 'Electronic Bird Table' or the Olympus Distributed Co-operative Planning System. It was first used during Operation Saif Sareea II in 2001 and a second system has been built and installed on HMS Albion LPD ahead of the Exercise Aurora. The Bird Table enables users to have information presented in graphical form often using geo-located surveillance imagery. Using a stylus users can drill down, aided by voice activated commands, and see constantly updated information about unit status, with the data tailored to the user's preference. The system is roughly the size of a billiard table and weighs 175 kg. However, it has been reduced in size for a variant in the form of a tablet--the 13 kg Ultrascribe--which was incorporated into the JWID 2004 Tactical HQ experiments.

In Germany, Rada launched its Hel (High resolution Electronic Large screen display) technology. The Hel can combine sixteen separate screens to display a single image, a combination of images or data in any part of the screen. Moreover, Barco has recently launched its iCommand screen, which is designed to be a network-centric visualisation platform for command posts. Consisting of Barco's Overview screen manager and Transform information management software the iCommand fuses the data and presents and manages it on the display.

Presenting information inside a command post often eliminates the need to operate outside a structure. It is tactically vital for the dismounted soldier to have the ability to operate in direct sunlight and at night. Companies such as Sweden's PCQT offer an ultra-low-light screen, while EDO MBM makes the LT450N, a night vision goggle-compatible version of its rugged Termite computer. A further consideration for the dismounted infantryman is the degree to which he needs data; i.e. what is the quantity of information and computing powered required to efficiently support at the individual, squad, section and platoon levels? No answers are imminent, as most soldier modernisation programmes across the globe have yet to be fielded.

However, lessons learned are beginning to be felt and absorbed. The Netherlands SMP developed a wristwatch linked to a computer by a Bluetooth connection that would automatically vibrate in a particular way when it received a warning of CBRN attack or artillery fire. This enabled the warning to be quickly conveyed to the soldier without requiring him to check his computer, not always possible in a combat situation.

Automation

Whereas time is of the essence on a dynamic battlefield for surveillance roles, the length of time spent by an operator watching each and every screen degrades effectiveness. For the surveillance role such as perimeter security, vital for force and homeland protection, militaries are reaching for systems than can automate this role with a high degree of confidence.

The SMart (Security Management Art) system, developed by Tadiran Electronic Systems, is designed to monitor activity and develop a knowledge base of patterns of routine behaviour matched to external databases and monitored in video imagery or other sensors. When a change is detected or an alert prompted the Smart alerts an operator to that change, for instance the failure of a particular vehicle to return by a specific time or an unusually parked car.

The Smart system has been acquired, using local council funding, to monitor the area around the Israeli town of Elat, ten km north of Tel Aviv. The town had previously erected a fence and employed five teams of guards in jeeps to patrol and respond to any breaches of security. Now, with the Smart, the fence is monitored by a series of local sensors only. This is supported by more capable central sensors that can be directed to a particular point, according to need. These are monitored by the system and managed by a single user who can direct a response team to any unusual activity. Since the Smart was introduced Elat has seen a massive decrease in security breaches. Options for the system enable the users to plug into national databases allowing, for example, the use of facial recognition technology to identify terrorists or the number plates of stolen cars. This ability to use computerised knowledge bases allows for a greater level of recognition than what is possible when simply relying on a human's ability to memorise and immediately process the information.

The challenge of maintaining human alertness is also being pursued by the US Navy's Office of Naval Research with Lockheed Martin's Human Alerting and Interruption Logistics-Surface Ship (Hail-SS) system. The latter was developed because it was felt that operators were being put under pressure by an overwhelming number of alerts that interrupted tasks. The Hail-SS software is designed to manage the operators' attention span during periods of alerts by presenting alert information to them in a manageable way, thus enabling them to rapidly resume their previous tasks once the alert was over. Tests have shown a 25 to 85 per cent increase in effectiveness depending on circumstances.

Doctrine

Doctrine will, to a large degree, govern the consequences of increased information flow. The militaries' different approaches to 'mission command' influence their views on information management. Encouraging subordinate commanders to act on their own initiative, based on the intent of the commander in the operation, reduces the ongoing need for oversight by higher echelons during an operation. Rules of Engagement also complicate decision-making. An increasing requirement is to provide imagery proof of target legitimacy prior to the ordering of an attack. Previous technology did not support this option; illustrating how new technology creates new obstacles to effective military decision-making.

Commanders who have traditionally had to rely on incomplete information will now have the option of waiting for more complete information on which to base their decisions. This runs contrary to traditional training, in which they have had to make quick decisions based on experience and instinct alone. In a risky adverse political climate the increased flow of information will generate pressure to make 'safe' choices at the expense of more rapid decisions. Furthermore, the connectivity from foxhole to command post is such that, in this same environment, the desire to micro-manage will also be strong--perhaps too strong.