Info gathering made 'simple' with net-centricity

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • Electronic Systems Center Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. (AFPN) --  U.S. Strategic Command provides the national command authority, including the secretary of defense and the president, with information on nearly any global contingency. This information must be solid enough to enable often rapid decision-making and comprehensive enough to allow potential response actions to be formulated and directed.

Each of the services' operators needed access to data-gathering and processing capabilities. The problem was that equipping each with all the individual systems and software would be overwhelmingly expensive and cumbersome.

"They'd be flooded with data," said Brig. Gen. Pete Hoene, commander of the 350th Electronic Systems Wing within the Electronic Systems Center. "It would be almost impossible to wade through it all and locate what was needed at the time."

On behalf of the Air Force, ESC sought to solve this problem with a 'simple' solution, said Senior Executive Service member Bruce Hevey, director of the 653rd ELSW. Using a proven method known as Really Simple Syndication, or RSS, the center is allowing STRATCOM, and other combatant commands, to access just what they need, when they need it.

A data solution perfected by the news industry, RSS allows users to stay informed rather easily by retrieving the latest content from the sites or, in this case, systems of greatest interest without needing to visit each one individually. RSS pushes information to users; users pull information with Web browsers. A typical RSS feed contains a title, a short description of the content and a link to the content.

The RSS and other commercial standards applied by ESC "automatically fuse incoming data and allow the user to go back to the source for more data as needed," said Roxanne McLean, director of Net-Centric C2 Capabilities for the 850th ELSG. "This is net-centricity for real."

As such it underpins a couple of major efforts designed to greatly enhance U.S. global situational awareness and warfighting capability. The C2 Data Pilot and the Strike Community of Interest both rely on this open-source, commercially exploited technology, said to Ray Modeen, director of Integration for the 350 ELSW.

"In both cases, we're talking about getting information that is authoritative and accurate to the warfighter, irrespective of its source," Mr. Modeen said.

All of this work has been recognized by combatant command leaders. In a July 31 letter to ESC Commander Lt. Gen. Chuck Johnson, a key STRATCOM senior officer wrote: "You and your command have well represented the United States Air Force and have exhibited a warfighter-focused lean-forward attitude."

Program managers stress that, while all of this enables more rapid reaction to any given scenario, its greater value rests with the predictive capabilities it fosters.

"Having near-real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data available allows combatant commanders to see what's going on, so they can predict what might happen before it ever does," said Dr. Tim Rudolph, director of Integration for the 653rd ELSW.

However, it also allows operators to better analyze potential responses.

"Courses of action that used to be static are now much more dynamic," said Dr. Rudolph. While in the past operators had to rely heavily on pre-written 'what-if' response options, now real-time data about the threats and the assets available to respond adds a critical extra dimension.

This significantly compresses the so-called OODA loop, said Steve Foote, chief architect for the 653rd ELSW. The acronym stands for observe, orient, decide and act, and more accessible, understandable information at operators' fingertips both reduces and enhances each step.

"We can observe and orient the battlefield very quickly, make a timelier decision and act more effectively," Mr. Foote said.

Through collaboration with the Defense Information Services Agency and others, this approach is greatly increasing information sharing among the services. And as this happens, capabilities are being expanded.

General Hoene and Mr. Hevey agree that ESC has come up with a solid solution that is very effective and inarguably cost-efficient, and that overall U.S. situational awareness has been increased as a result.

This work, as Admiral Philman stated in his letter, shows that the ESC team has "gone the extra mile to make a difference in the lives of the warfighter."

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