‘Integration’ theme of JEFX 04 Spiral 3

  • Published
  • By Daryl Mayer
  • Electronic Systems Center Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. (AFPN) --  With the successful conclusion of Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment Spiral 3 recently, the stage is now set for the largest battle management command and control experiment ever.

JEFX ‘04, the Air Force’s premier experimental venue for groundbreaking command and control technology and processes, involves forces at bases across the United States and includes people from England, Australia and Canada. The main experiment is scheduled for July 19 to Aug. 6.

The experimental environment encompasses the entire command and control constellation. One large portion of it centers on the experimental Combined Air Operations Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

This center, designed and built by a team of military, government civilian and industry engineers from the Electronic Systems Center here, uses the latest technology to create a “near-future” CAOC. Innovations from the experiment are expected to begin entering the field during the next six to 18 months.

Spiral 3 is often referred to as the “dress rehearsal” for the main experiment.

“Where Spiral 2 is all about setup and installation, Spiral 3 focuses on integration,” said Maj. Joseph Murphy, Spiral 3 team leader. “We look for the seams and then concentrate on fixing them.”

Spiral 3 began with some additional training needs and then launched into the scenarios. During this portion, CAOC officials from the 8th Air Force put the tools and the procedures to use through the hectic pace generated by simulated wartime operations.

“We set the stage for the 8th Air Force [officials] to learn how to use these tools. Because we were successful with installation and integration, they could focus on developing tactics, techniques and procedures,” Major Murphy said.

“We think we have a good product,” said Carmen Corsetti, an engineer with the ESC’s experimentation division. “Now, we have to do the polishing.”

Ultimately, tools and procedures are just the means to an end.

“We are aiming to deliver the capabilities defined in the experiment initiatives,” said Clif Banner, JEFX ‘04 chief engineer. “We may need to tweak the tool or find a new way to make it deliver the data we want in the format we need.”

The key to the success of the experiment and indeed to maintaining an overwhelming and decisive advantage over the nation’s adversaries is integration, officials said.

A cursor-on-target program tested in the experiment uses extensible markup language to share critical bits of data, such as what, where and when, between disparate systems.

“[The language] allows different systems with different functions to pass along common information, such as target coordinates, using a standard machine language. This creates a common information ‘thread’ so that critical information can be passed along from machine to machine more rapidly and without human error introduced in the process,” said Col. Peter Axup, the experimentation division chief.

Throughout Spiral 3 and including the previous spirals, interaction between people is important, officials said.

“JEFX affords us a tremendous opportunity, and we do see it as an opportunity,” Colonel Axup said. “We don’t often have the chance to get our engineers out on the floor to work side by side with operators and see how the tools are being used. That’s when we really make strides.”

When experts of all types are brought together as part of JEFX, they become one team working toward a common goal, and synergy ensues.

“At first we may not understand one another, but once we learn each other’s language, we can get down to work,” Mr. Corsetti said. “The good news is we are here mixing it up so we can do just that.”