Defence Business: Kiwi cyber talk | ADM Sep 2010
June is traditionally the time when ADM’s NZ correspondent is up before dawn to catch the unclassified face of the annual Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID); but this year matters were conducted on a more civilised basis.
Nick Lee-Frampton | Trentham
Indeed, ADM saw Commander Rodger Ward, who heads the Communications and Information Systems unit at HQ Joint Forces, in daylight because the New Zealand Defence Force’s (NZDF’s) participation in CWID 2010 occurred abroad and not, as in the past several years, on Kiwi territory.
The NZDF has participated in CWID (and its predecessor, the Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration) since 1994, although recently the resources available for the exercise have diminished significantly.
“The fiscal pressure is high, it has impacted on our operational budget,” CDR Ward said.
“The 2009 CWID cost us 400 man days and there were not a lot of successful trials, mostly because we are waiting for [our] infrastructure to be upgraded to support new systems and technologies.
“Our CWID budget for this year was cut in half and probably there will be similar constraints next year.
“I doubt we are going back to 400 man days.”
Last year the NZDF sent four officers overseas to observe CWID; this year there were seven, including four in Europe, two in the US and one in Canada.
CDR Ward, together with the assistant chief of development Brigadier Tim Gall, and Steve Hollett from the Ministry of Defence, also spent CWID time in the US at San Diego where the CWID exercise included a Humanitarian Aid & Disaster Relief (HADR) scenario and a classified maritime command centre.
“The whole [HADR] engagement was really powerful for us, demonstrating technology and also working together … because that is what is going to happen in real life,” CDR Ward told ADM.
“You get the international engagement benefit, which has nothing to do with technology but just being there and adding value by being there.
“You get the standard operating procedures (SOPs) on how the technology is going to be used.
“The vendors were learning from how the soldiers were using their products and so making it better.
“And then there was the technical assessment, is this kit any good?”
ADM asked Ward what technologies had caught his eye and he mentioned three items, including ISIS Intelligence’s GPS tracking system.
“It provides line of sight soldier awareness so they can operate in the dark, in smoke and know where everyone is.
“ISIS was first designed to fit on a soldier’s boots but that didn’t give [adequate] range, so they made up a Velcro fitting [for the] shoulder and that doubled the range from 200 metres to 400 metres.
“At CWID one of the soldiers realised that a simple modification to the antenna would boost the range further still and it became 800 metres.
“That’s free R&D, a massive capability jump, the guys from [ISIS] were happy.
“It was one of the standout technologies; really simple, but the right combination of a bunch of technologies.
“Cheap, portable, virtually indestructible; those are things that soldiers like.
Sofcoasts’ Affordable Stationary Aerial Platform (ASAP) XP inflatable (with helium) wing was “really clever” Ward said.
“Traditionally such things have been balloons, which get blown by the wind, moving away from where you want them to be and putting strain on the tethering cable.
“But Sofcoasts’ powered design flew in to the wind and remained overhead.”
Initially designed to function as a communications relay, increasing [UHF hand-held radio] line of sight range by kilometres, at CWID the aerostat was modified in the field to serve as a platform for sensors, Ward said.
By working together with other vendors Sofcoast added utility to both capabilities.
A Canadian company’s hardware — DeltaCrypt’s DUSK Wave — also impressed Ward.
“It enables you to use one terminal to look at multiple layers of security systems.
“So you can have a USB hard-drive that only allows access to information on it when it is plugged in to the right environment.”
This removes the danger of inadvertently downloading classified data to an insecure terminal.
Black Ice
However, the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) didn’t set out with only passive intent; they had domestically designed and developed kit — known as Black Ice — to plug in to CWID 2010 too.
ADM observed this system, designed to provide a reliable power supply in austere areas until heavier power generating systems can be introduced, at CWID 2009.
Since then the product has been further refined and developed and the first four Black Ice sets were delivered to the NZDF just days before Ward spoke to ADM.
“It still doesn’t do the secure side of the house; last year we needed one of our big, hot and heavy crypto devices to provide the security.
“Well, technology has moved on and we don’t need that crypto device now, we can get it on a card that you plug in to a terminal.
“It is a military plug-in, but you can purchase it commercially, which is good because the controls on it are less, so you don’t have to worry so much about losing it.”
Ward wanted to take Black Ice to CWID but Aviation Security stalled the flight of Kiwi innovation because “they didn’t know what was in the case!
“It’s all working, we just need to get some paperwork done to identify what’s in the boxes.”
“Interestingly there were other companies at San Diego with similar products, but none of them with the power we have with Black Ice.
“One vendor had a big case the size of a table, with a gel battery, plus a portable generator [making it larger and heavier than the Kiwi design].
“Nobody there had done much about solar, which is what Black Ice runs on.
“It is quite basic technology but it’s just used cleverly.
“We are going to use it now, it is going to the Pacific Endeavour HADR exercise in Singapore in August, that will be its first international outing.
“Once we start using it, it will be something other people will want.
“Most of the other stuff at CWID ’10 we had already seen; portal technology, more and more visualisation, but nobody is really doing anything smarter,” CDR Ward said.
“CWID 2010 was focused on Afghanistan for the second consecutive year; it’s an operational focus, as is ours, on how better to share that [operational data] with our coalition partners … including the Afghan National Army, the Afghan Police and the Afghan government.
“Afghanistan agencies and authorities rely on telephone and video and that needs security.
“It needs infrastructure up on a mountain, power up at 12,000ft to power a repeater station for their communications.
“You can’t carry that up a mountain, you have to fly it in.”
ADM had previously noticed reference to Trident Warrior (TW) when attending previous incarnations of CWID and asked Ward how it compared.
“Trident Warrior is a continuous Navy program at the maritime tactical level, CWID is strategic technological initiatives for theatre-level joint commanders,” CDR Ward explained.
The Royal New Zealand Navy had two ships taking part in TW10.
“Both the frigate Te Kaha and fleet tanker Endeavour attended the Canadian Navy’s 100th anniversary and they participated in TW10 as they sailed down the western coast of North America.
“TW10’s focus is on simulated loss of satellite coverage, so the ships [involved will be] relying on a sub-net relay.
“This makes each ship an effective node.
“Each node has a router, which connects to a network.
“It goes line of sight from ship to ship, which enables communications to go over-the-horizon.
“If one ship should be out of line-of-sight range it will seek another one to use as a node.”
To a significant extent the NZDF has long been ‘out of sight’ in terms of participating in other US-based exercises, but CDR Ward said that situation was increasingly changing.
“The continuing thaw in NZ-US relations has provided us with access to more and more activities not previously available, including the USJFCOM-sponsored Empire Challenge.
“CWID is just one of many experimental trials and observations.
“Different groups, such as ABCA, have their own experimental programs.
“There are others we don’t even know about.”
Secure
Military communications are notably secretive, yet as Ward pointed out, the commercial world has data it wants to keep hidden as well.
“The commercial world needs the same or even better security than the military, especially the banking and medical communities.
“We’re learning lessons from them.”
Ward told ADM that the NZDF was keen to take ‘greater advantage’ of the internet.
“The challenge is how do we do that and retain the integrity of our information?
“How do we control packets and guarantee they are not interfered with?
“We are never going to have 100 per cent control of information, we are too small, so we have to figure out a way of understanding what’s happening to information as it flows from A to B, whose eyes are on it, is it properly protected, is it the same at its intended destination as it was when sent?
“To ensure that level of security in the past we had to have our own communications bearer, with the internet we don’t and that’s a big challenge.
“We are growing in skills, taking small steps in a spiral development.”
One technique that the NZDF has introduced is satellite mesh networking.
Traditionally, data sent to a satellite is then bounced to and from a ground station before it is received at its final destination.
Satellite mesh networking effectively eliminates the ground station.
“For the NZDF in Afghanistan the data goes node to node via the satellite, rather than satellite to ground station and return.”
There are other digital economies that can be utilised, Ward explained.
“If one node is not being used we can share its bandwidth.
“This [technique] doesn’t directly save dollars but it does enable us to use bandwidth more efficiently. “Currently we have two satellite mesh networks operating, one land based and one ship based.
“This is not new, it’s not groundbreaking technology.
“The NZ Army was doing this two and a half years ago with dishes on towed trailers.
“Now, though, we can say it will work and we can take it forward.
“That’s a success story for NCW in NZ, but it has taken us about four years.
“It shows there is value in an experimental program.
“By the end of this year we expect that the communications capacity of our force in Afghanistan to be tripled in effectiveness for [negligible] operational cost.
“We’re reliant, vastly more reliant, on information in Afghanistan than we were seven, eight years ago.
“And we have maintained that information flow without extra cost.”