Air battle management system honored

  • Published
  • By Chuck Paone
  • Electronic Systems Center Public Affairs
HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. (AFPN) --  An Air Force program that cuts across service lines and allows automated and fully integrated air battle management has been selected to receive an award of excellence.

The Theater Battle Management Core Systems was chosen to receive the Association for Enterprise Integration’s Government Award for Excellence in Enterprise Integration for 2003. The association, an affiliate of the National Defense Industrial Association, cited the system as “the best example of total and innovative enterprise integration in the government category.”

The system, often described as the “engine” of the air operations center, is used to build the air tasking order that dictates air battle operations. It gives air component commanders within the AOC the capabilities needed to manage all air assets in theater. They can create, assimilate and manipulate data then quickly distribute data to others.

The rapid improvements to the system have been critical to the Air Force’s ability to build and standardize AOCs as a weapon system, according to Col. Pete Hoene, AOC weapon system program director.

“While (the system) is one of many applications in the AOC, it’s the critical tool used by the (joint force air component commander) and his staff to generate, disseminate and execute the air tasking order,” Hoene said. “Its open architecture has allowed other systems in the AOC to exchange information freely, too. (This) has enabled us to move ... away from a collection of stove-piped systems to a center that’s far more integrated and has significantly improved machine-to-machine interaction.”

The system was tested heavily in the heat of the battle during operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom, and the AOCs became the nerve centers for these operations. The results, in both cases, were overwhelmingly positive, he said.

The system program manager, Maj. John Shafer, said he thinks this is one thing that clearly sets it apart.

“We’ve not only designed a system that’s intended to embody enterprise integration principles; we’ve deployed it,” he said. “During Operation Iraqi Freedom, (the system) ran at 150 percent of its intended capacity, and the results exceeded expectations.”

The system’s dependability has been a strong point since its fielding three years ago, when it combined and formally replaced three separate legacy systems. However, its true system integration value has come with recent upgrades, which allow more users easier access to the data generated by the system. In many cases, access comes simply via a Web browser, Shaffer said.

This “Web-enabling,” while still a work in progress, “has allowed unprecedented access,” said Eric Estochen, the program’s lead engineer.

During OIF, more than 1,000 different users pulled data off Web servers. Previously, each of them would have needed Unix-based, system-configured machines and formal training. Now, access authority and a Web browser have become the chief requirements, in many cases.

Now users can get the information they need, the way they want it, Shafer said.

“They can sort and parse information any way they want, using the tools the system provides, and they can look at it in a number of different graphical ways,” Shafer said.