Defence is in the process of developing a system that it hopes will capture, manage and disseminate to those needing it, the ever-increasing flow of information from the ADF’s large, disparate and growing number of ISR capabilities. Our US friends may well lead the way.
The Defence Capability Plan contains many projects that deliver platforms and capabilities that contribute to the supply of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) data. Those of our Coalition partners and other ADF initiatives are adding to this volume.
As Defence succinctly puts it, the achievement of an information edge in a networked force requires that this information is managed and mustered to best influence Defence’s command and decision making. Project JP 2069 ISR network integration, aims to provide the means of managing and delivering this sometimes vital information in a timely manner.
Developing a coherent approach to Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) has been a challenge for military forces, largely because of its complex nature as an integrating function which coordinates and interfaces with many components.
The 2007 Defence ISR Roadmap highlighted this complexity in describing ‘a system of interconnected ...elements that will seamlessly combine with the command and engagement systems to ensure that information can be readily exchanged in support of shared situational awareness, collaborative planning and cooperative action.’
Project Definition
JP 2096 with a possible cost of $500 million aims to enhance Defence ISR through the efficient management, analysis and integration of ISR assets into a Defence-wide architecture. The project focuses on the provision of the means by which ISR assets across Defence are integrated into the Australian Defence ISR Integration Backbone (ADIIB) architecture, with Phase 1 focussed on the design and development of that architecture. Phase 2 will build on that foundation and integrate complex legacy ISR systems into the backbone.
The use of ADIIB with appropriate communications and IT infrastructures will ensure that the right information is provided to the right person at the right time to provide Defence with information advantage over adversaries. This project will seek to ensure that ISR resources and information are effectively utilised by enabling coordinated tasking and exploitation of all ISR assets and effective dissemination of ISR data.
This system-of-systems project also encompasses the provision of the means to achieve the federation and networking of distributed databases (the holding repositories for the collected data and the processed information and intelligence).
JP 2096 Phase 1 focusses on the design and development of an architecture that will provide networked access to the growing volumes of data sourced from multiple surveillance sensors available to the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO), and facilitate the related information management (including search, tasking and dissemination) of the sensor outputs.
The first phase will also provide an ISR integration capability, the provision of key ISR services and the integration of legacy ISR capabilities.
Although industry requirements have yet to be developed, the following needs are anticipated for both phases:
- Specialist consulting services in the design, development and integration of very sophisticated high level architecture to fulfil the Integrated ISR system requirements;
- Sophisticated software along with a significant amount of hardware to enhance operational capability and future developments for the Integrated ISR system;
- Integration with the Defence Information Environment, especially the infrastructure involved in the Service Oriented Architecture; and
- Development of adapters for legacy data sources.
Phase 2 will extend the capability provided by Phase 1 in response to ADO ISR capability requirements and priorities. The extension of the ADIIB capability under Phase 2 will include the continued integration of legacy capabilities, the provision of key ISR services, and the application of the architecture to other physical or security domains.
This project phase may require minor expansion and enhancement of existing facilities and supporting infrastructure. This will be further defined as the project matures.
A US road ahead?
While JP 2096 offers little more than a military focus on the integration of the ADF’s ISR capabilities, the Kokoda Foundation takes a much broader view of what it sees as part of the national security framework with ISR positioned as a sovereign capability. Indeed the Kokoda ISR Project aims to develop new ideas for a future Australian ISR Enterprise, comprising platforms, sensors, data and people.
In what may be seen as a call to arms in this respect, Gary Waters1 says that whilst ISR has traditionally focussed on military operations, the last century has seen an increasing emergence of ISR as a construct and capability that might support a broader ‘national interest’.
“Indeed, today the national security community is engaged as both a user and contributor, and the need has recently emerged for an ISR capability that supports border protection in which a ‘national’ or ‘sovereign’ interest, as opposed to a ‘military’ paradigm, has come to the fore,” he said.
He also says this country will need to leverage the lessons learned by the United States in its rapid build-up of its separate, Service-centric Distributed Common Ground Station (DCGS) networks.
As a consequence, the United States has had to develop the DCGS Integrated Backbone (the D12E set of data sharing servers and standards) at considerable cost and time to link the various DCGS systems together so that analysts can share information. In its Defence ISR Integration Backbone, Australia is seeking to start with an overarching, or enterprise, approach to intelligence collaboration, which equates with the US D12E framework.
Noting that Australia will seek a multi-source/multi-Service/multi-theatre ISR capability, one option that Waters says should be explored is the forthcoming USMC DCGS which may prove highly relevant to this country’s ISR posture due in the main to the USMC tri-Service structural similarity to the ADF and the desire to have a single DCGS capability.
Relevant to the foregoing, in March 2014, the US Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic awarded Science Applications International a task order to provide support services for the Distributed Common Ground System - Marine Corps (DCGS-MC) Integrated Project Team. Under the up to $13 million contract, SAIC will provide program management, production engineering, integrated logistics, technical data package development, and testing.
DCGS-MC is an information-sharing service that connects intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems to Marine Corps analysts and other military services for enterprise search, content discovery, collaboration, and workflow management. The Marines recently issued a request for information seeking input on the possibility of using cloud services for the DCGS-MC suite.
And in an earlier address to a Williams Foundation ISR Seminar in Canberra, Raytheon’s Gerard Foley said that many new platforms planned for the ADF will have strong ISR capabilities, the challenge being to offload the information, and process, exploit and disseminate it to tactical and strategic users. While this was presently a deficiency in Australia, he said the US approach was to use the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) now known as the DI2E Framework.
But the US DCGS system of integrating ISR capabilities on a Service basis has had its problems. DCGS-A is the Army component of the larger Defense Intelligence Information Enterprise (DI2E) and interoperable with other service DCGS programs.
According to the US Army, DCGS-A is the primary weapon system of the US Army's intelligence analysts. By employing this weapon system, intelligence analysts and leaders improve their commanders' ability to visualise, describe, and direct actions on the battlefield. DCGS-A joins tactical, operational and theatre-level commanders with hundreds of intelligence-related data sources. The enhanced access, accuracy and relevance of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) effort provide commanders the information they need when they need it. This allows them to plan and conduct full-spectrum operations across the full range of military operations.
However reports indicate that troops using the DCGS-A system in Afghanistan found the software unwieldy and unreliable, hard to learn and difficult to use. There were complaints that it was too complicated to be actually useful in remote locations in Afghanistan.
According to reporter Austin Wright (politico.com), the dispute offers a case study in an age-old military phenomenon: Top commanders and grunts downrange experience war differently — and sometimes have differing views on which technologies work best in battle. Commanders, often far removed from the action on the ground, have a number of competing interests — in this case, the need to build an interoperable intelligence network to serve the Army for decades to come versus the need to analyse intelligence gleaned from the battlefield here and now. The grunts are mainly concerned about the here and now.
1Gary Waters: Getting it Right: Integrating the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Enterprise, Kokoda Paper 18 – April 2014.