Force Protection: What lies ahead for Blue Force situational awareness? | ADM Aug 2009
Well, that's the theory.
Tom Muir | Canberra
Along with manoeuvre control and joint fires, Blue Force situational awareness tops land networking priorities. Yet with the latest Milestone 2 looming in less than two years for the first Networked Battlegroup, where are we today?
The first of the Army's Networking Milestones, the networked Special Operations Task Unit, is due for implementation this year.
It will deliver a Special Operations Vehicle (SupaCat Nary) and C4ISR package to provide a network enabled capability for Special Air Services Regiment (SASR) land operations.
Next comes Milestone 2-the Networked Battle Group-which currently comprises mounted and dismounted members of 6 RAR-the Land NCW testbed-a motorised infantry battalion, equipped with Bushmaster IMVs and supported by other combined arms team units.
According to battle group mission type, motorised infantry may find themselves supported by armoured units, light artillery units, as well as combat engineers and combat support groups.
Battle groups may also be drawn from medium combined arms (armoured units, mechanised infantry and medium artillery) and light combined arms (rapidly deployable light infantry, armoured sub-units, light artillery) according to their mission.
6 RAR's test bed transition to the first fully networked combat team will be underpinned by a range of capabilities, sourced from enabling projects (eg L125, L75 and L2072), and by extensive training as well as the application of what the Army refers to as prescribed tactics, techniques and procedures (TTP).
The physical capabilities will include dismounted battle management systems (BMS) and their C2 comms, which will be fielded down to dismounted close combatant fire team leaders, while mounted BMS and C3 systems will be provided to all manoeuvre (ie mobile) elements of the Battle Group and its HQ.
An overriding feature of the networked BG, will be the provision of the automated Blue Force common operational picture (COP) and shared situational awareness, from dismounted soldier to armoured squadrons.
Much of the physical networking infrastructure, that is the battle management systems and their digital backbone will be sourced from the combined L75/L125 BMS acquisition, for which Elbit Systems is the preferred tenderer.
Since this requirement has yet to receive 2nd Pass approval and then contract signature, there may be legitimate doubts as to whether sufficient Elbit BMS, or the selected Harris handheld/mounted radios, can be introduced into service to harmonise with Milestone 2 in 2011.
Even less clear is where the Blue Force situational awareness (SA) system is coming from.
The BMS to be provided by Elbit are fully capable of supporting Blue Force SA, which will be piped throughout the Combat Group C2 and C3 networks, from deployed HQ down to the fire team leader's PDA.
According to the Networking the Army Campaign, the key gaps identified between current and required networking capabilities include:
• Integrated Blue Force SA across the combat force
• Connectivity from sensor to shooter
• Facilitation of combat ID data across the joint battlespace.
Although hard and fast decisions have yet to be made it would appear that aside from vehicle mounted FBCB2-BFT capabilities, acquired as urgent requirements for deployed force operations in the MEAO, the ADF's Blue Force Tracking capability currently lies with an ‘interim' L-band satellite based FBCB2-BFT system, used mainly for training in Australia.
When it acquired the M1A1 Abrams tanks, Defence opted to include a battle management system with the purchase, the preferred system being the already integrated FBCB2 system, with a choice between the satellite dependent FBCB2/BFT or the UHF line-of-sight FBCB2/EPLRS.
Defence chose the former as a temporary, stand-alone system used for training and exercise purposes until replaced by a system introduced into service via Land 75 and integrated with strategic C2 systems.
To meet the L-Band satellite infrastructure requirements, US firm Comtech was contracted by Optus to provide the packet data messaging and asset tracking system, the satellite earth station hub equipment, and the technical support required to provide Blue Force Tracking (BFT) capabilities throughout Australia.
Used in conjunction with Comtech's Model 2011 mobile satellite data transceivers, the satellite network equipment enables the ADF to transmit and receive situational awareness information, including Blue Force Tracking (BFT), via the Defence-owned transponder on the Singtel/Optus C1 satellite.
Having opted to introduce an Australia-wide satellite BFT capability, Defence procured FBCB2-BFT systems, under rapid acquisition arrangements, which have been installed in ADF ASLAV and Bushmaster vehicles.
This has enabled all-important training in networked battle management by those combined arms teams we described earlier, including, mission rehearsal exercises for deploying force elements.
BFT implementation
Defence had originally planned a three-step implementation of BFT.
The first was a so-called temporary satellite-based system for up to 12 months, step two was an interim solution that might or might not be satellite-based, while step three would be the Land 75 solution.
It is apparent that steps one and two have merged into the current satellite-based system which, since it involves the Defence-owned transponder on C1 and equipment that has been purchased, not leased, from Comtech, will continue as a short term interim solution, until replaced by early optimisation of the Wideband Global Satellite (WGS) system.
JP 2008 (Military Satellite Capability) Phase 3H will see the rapid replacement of SATCOM terminal installations in the Middle East with WGS certified terminals and the introduction of WGS certified terminals to deliver services currently provided by narrowband and L-Band terminals.
Phase 5B will see the delivery of a satellite ground station in the east of Australia for WGS system anchoring and the delivery of transportable wideband ground terminals for land forces.
And it seems that the mobile and transportable terminals of the future will achieve significantly better performance due to two major factors.
First, the SATCOM space segments will be much more capable with respect to power and antenna coverage.
A single WGS satellite can supply the capacity of the entire US DSCS constellation.
On the terminal side, the use of very efficient forward error correction coding, super conductive technologies for RF reception and conversions, and the miniaturisation of electronics pursued in the mobile phone and Joint Tactical Radio System development will be major contributors.
The capability provided by WGS and the fixed and mobile ground terminals will easily meet the ADF's need for high data rate communications out to at least the year 2024 and beyond.
Through the WGS system the ADF will have the capability to deliver Blue Force SA to the L75 Battle Management Systems, wherever deployed.
And what will be the Blue Force SA solution? Land 75 Phase 4 is split between continuing the rollout of the BMS to two Brigades, further elements of Special Forces and RAAF, while providing updates to earlier rollouts to maintain commonality.
The same phase is expected to fund major software releases to enhance the Battlefield Command Support System (BCSS).
When the DMO took over as integrator for the Land 75 BCSS project, previously primed by Saab Systems, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, the major developer of FBCB2-BFT and Coalition Blue Force Tracker, was contracted to advise on the development of the Common Operational Picture (COP).
The COP will be displayed on the Land 75 Battle Management Systems and of necessity will include positional information provided by whatever Blue Force SA capability is available.
In its development of the BCSS, Saab Systems, teamed with Northrop Grumman, achieved considerable improvements including the introduction of Variable Messaging Format (VMF) as well as BFT gateways.
BCSS had also been distributed by satellite and by EPLRS wideband radio.
In responding to the ANAO's report on the tardy introduction into service of the M1A1 Abrams tank, Defence told the ANAO that a mature Joint Blue Force Situational Awareness capability for Defence was likely to be a major capital project requirement for inclusion in the next DCP.
We haven't been able to find it within the publicly available DCP other than those references to major software upgrades for the Land 75 BCSS.
Our assumption is that a fully interoperable Blue Force SA system will be sought soon as part of major upcoming software upgrades for Land 75 BMS/BCSS.
When it arrives, a Blue Force SA COP will be fielded across the battlefield including to our fire team leader, mentioned in the introduction and now finding positional reassurance from his PDA.
An important feature of the WGS system is its broadcast capabilities.
In Australia, JP2065's Integrated Broadcast System (IBS) manages and disseminates tactically significant information, which is produced by Australian and allied intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and ‘Blue Force' tracking systems, directly to deployed forces.
The Australian IBS vision includes an information management centre that manages and bridges information between computer networks and satellite components with suitable gateways to real-time tactical data links.
JP2065's ability to disseminate timely information to deployed forces will be enhanced through use of the WGS broadcast capabilities which augment the current Ka-band Global Broadcast Service (on UHF F/O satellites) by providing additional information broadcast capabilities.
A MOTS solution?
Our speculation has covered the software enhancements to BCSS as part of the development of an Australian Blue Force SA.
But are we not losing sight of the possibility of complete, ready to run, fully interoperable MOTS solutions being available now, or in the near future?
Lockheed Martin has been contracted by the UK MOD for a system similar to Blue Force Tracker.
The Land Environment Air Picture Provision (LEAPP) provides situational awareness for troops so that they may minimise friendly fire incidents.
Other BFT systems may soon be available as MOTS ready to run software.
One that has taken our fancy is a Windows-based system that uses BFT-capable CNRs for positional updating in vehicle applications.
In Europe S&T IT Solutions has developed its Peripheral Device Server for armoured vehicles including the Patria AMV 8x8 and the Steyer Pandur 6x6.
The PDS is more than just a hardware integration server.
It offers advanced features such as communications and blue force tracking (BFT).
The PDS BFT can be also linked to the NFFI (NATO Friendly Force Identifier) Service if the PDS is configured as a NFFI gateway.
Initial implementation of BFT provides support for the BFT-capable Harris Falcon II series CNR and the Tadiran CNR 900.
Support for other devices such as Thales radios is planned for the future.
ADF personnel attending the Soldier Technology conference in London recently learned of Northrop Grumman's new Iridium L-Band satellite based BFT system which has been developed for export and thus presumably for broad interoperability with NATO forces.
The system is based on GPS-integrated transceiver antennas mounted on vehicles linked to ruggedised terminals able to run Northrop Grumman's C2PC application.
The vehicles serve as outstations and, under a two-way architecture, automatically transmit their GPS locations at specified intervals to a central hub server.
Here they are aggregated with other inputs to form a common operating picture.
To save on bandwidth, only relevant aspects of the COP are transmitted to the outstations.
The Iridium network is unique in that it covers the whole earth, including poles, oceans and airways.
The ADF currently utilises the Iridium fleet for paging, voice and data communications and its use of this low-cost satellite capability is currently being renewed.