Defence embraces information technology

It is widely assumed that Information Technology is a recent development, but if we cast our minds back to John Logie Baird's invention of raster scan TV and the BBC's early TV broadcasts in 1936 we have to accept that in the generic sense of the term IT started then. For the television medium provides an unmatched capability of conveying information to the world's populace and it continues to grow both in complexity and size.

In Defence, IT has a solid and growing base, but the emergence of the Defence Information Environment (DIE) to acquire and disseminate strategic and tactical information throughout Defence, leading to a more effective capability, is a new spin for IT. Yet, like TV, the Defence Information Environment (DIE) may be considered to be a particular application, if it is possible to focus on a narrower interpretation of the catch-all descriptor, IT.

Defence is a major user of IT for its administrative processes, but in the field of purely military systems used for the acquisition of data in decision-making and the dissemination of information the ADF generally speaks of these systems as Information Systems (IS). A plausible reason for differentiation between IT and IS is that in the ADF's lexicon of terminology an IS comprises a system and the information it carries. Whereas, in the commercial IT environment the system that carries the information and the information itself are not considered together providing the former has the capacity to carry the latter.

A further reason for differentiation may be due to the highly diverse nature of the data the ADF needs for its decision-making processes, the wide spectrum of the sources of the data that may have to be fused to enable decision-making, and the need to optimise the human machine interface to facilitate assimilation of and reaction to the data in real-time.

The need for better real-time knowledge of the environment, enabling better decisions to be made has spawned the establishment of the spatially dimensionless Defence Information Environment. The DIE is spatially dimensionless because it has no physical boundaries, other than planet Earth, but the time domain contains the essence of its capabilities.

The need for a DIE arises because, over the past ten years or so, the character of the ADF's operations have changed enormously in several principal respects. For example, the ADF is now operationally integrated under a single command structure, it is now more mobile to better protect Australia's mainland and offshore areas of interest and it participates in international peacekeeping obligations due to its defence relationships with other nations.

In the last respect, the ADF has to interoperate with its allies and within itself, strategically, tactically and with information networks that mesh seamlessly. In peacetime, the ADF also provides the core capability of the country's disaster relief operations necessitating information exchange with civil organisations. These respects significantly affect the structure, size and complexity of the ADF's information systems, requiring them to be operationally flexible, have a redundant network to maintain a failure-free capability, and be capable of adaptation and evolution as the ADF and its allies evolve.

In its simplest terminology the DIE that is being established will be a seamless multi-level information network, carrying voice, data and video media, that will permeate throughout the ADF, Defence and civil operations as well as connections into allies' similar networks.

To provide this capability the DIE will use many existing, emerging and planned communications networks, with the HF Modernisation and MILSATCOM projects being two notable examples. It will also include many physically discrete information processing systems such as the Army's Battlefield Command Support System (BCSS) and higher level Joint Command Support Systems (JCSS), that might be described as processing nodes within the DIE.

Currently, Defence has some ten discretely identifiable communications projects that will contribute to the establishment and operation of the DIE and the broad plan to have almost every ADF service person 'in the loop' and perhaps four of these projects contribute to the establishment of an over-arching communications network. They are HF Modernisation (JP 2043), MILSATCOM (JP 2008), Defence Wide Area Communications Network (JP 2047) and Battlespace Communications, Land/Air (JP 2072). Interconnected with these major systems are smaller discrete systems that include the ADF Air Defence System Communications Network (AADSNET) (AIR 5333) and Maritime Communications Information Management Architecture Modernisation (SEA 1442). Another major communications system that Defence is coming to grips with is the Personal Communications Systems (PCS - JP 2067). It will probably use existing civilian cellular radio system technology and when established it will permeate the DIE.

Although there is a large number of communications projects, the DIE must have a superior network coverage and fall-back paths to cover the possibility of system failures and battle damage. For example, the very large area coverage provided by MILSATCOM, apart from its spot coverage, and the HF MOD project are in many respects complementary systems, particularly for very long-haul and offshore communications. And, as well, land/air environment systems on the mainland that will normally use MILSATCOM will be backed up by land-line and microwave systems, mostly provided by Telcos.

Intrinsic with the DIE network will be system nodes or command support systems operated by humans. These nodes will collect and fuse data facilitating its analysis and decision-making processes. They will also store and forward the data acquired within the ADF's command structure, whether it is intelligence or battlefield tactical data. In the past, these systems were generally applications specific and they pre-dated the much newer holistic approach of the DIE and this may complicate their integration with it. However, during the past three or four years standardisation of these system nodes, through the development of Command Support System (CSS), is overcoming information integration problems. The CSSs generally have common system architecture and function although the data they will process may vary markedly, depending where they are located within the information system.

The CSSs were developed in response to the establishment of a new command structure brought about by the decision to functionally integrate the ADF with a single top command COMAST (Commander Australian Theatre) and below him layers of lower level decision makers reaching down to, say, the patrol leader in the field.

At the higher command levels there are Joint Command Support Systems (JCSS), (JP 2030) later phases of which will see the establishment of the JCS Environment to integrate new and existing command support systems and the Joint Intelligence Sub System (JISS), (DEF 7013). At the field command levels there the Battlefield Command Support System (BCSS) (Land 75), the outgrowth of Parakeet, and Sector Operations Centres, a proposed example of which is the Mobile Sector Operations Centre (MSOC) (Air 5405).

MSOC will provide a deployable aerospace battle management capability to support the Deployable Joint Force HQ operations and other fixed Regional Operations Centres. Learning from the evolution of CSSs, MSOC is proposed to be modular and capable of being tailored to meet specific requirements, including an air surveillance reporting post at the least complex operational level through to a complex Combined Air Operations Centre capability.

Remaining in the wings for the past ten or more years is the Vigilare Project (Air 5333, Phase 1) planned to replace the very old Control and Reporting Units 1 and 3. As time has gone by each successive approach to the requirement has changed to match the evolving command system architecture. As currently conceived, Vigilare will provide C2 systems to replace CRU1/3, but it will also provide a single communications network that integrates ADF ground-based assets. In this respect it will connect civil and military air surveillance systems, ground-based weapons systems and radio sites and command centres. It is interesting to speculate on how the Vigilare requirements will be satisfied, but it is evident that the CSS architecture is a viable candidate, albeit requiring different applications software.

The establishment of the DIE will be necessarily slow, because the individual components of its fabric differ in their complexity, have different production timescales, and their priorities vary and, despite its tremendous importance to the operation of the ADF, the DIE has to share defence funding with other high priority projects. Further, the conversion of the principles of a concept as complex as that of the DIE into a working information system clearly requires a progressive, multi-phased approach to its introduction. This apart from the need to introduce new levels of human capability to work in the environment!

Overlaying the above are other inescapable issues such as the fact that the ADF is itself an evolutionary organisation designed for conflict but existing in a partly peaceful environment and the continuous growth of digital processing technology. These and other factors will necessitate continuous fine tuning of the DIE.

By Fred Haddock & Tom Muir, Canberra