DSTO & R&D: Making the right decision | ADM Nov 2010
The Joint Decision Support Centre (JDSC) may have lost the simulation from its name but the facility has lost none of its capabilities as it expands to cover the wide range of tasks asked of it by Capability Development Group (CDG) and other defence agencies.
Katherine Ziesing | Canberra
The JDSC, formerly known as the JDSSC (the simulation ‘s’ was dropped for reasons explained later), was formed in 2007 to assist CDG project desk officers (PDO) articulate issues and make informed decisions about capability development.
The centre, based at Fairbairn in Canberra, is a joint effort between CDG and the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO).
PDOs do not need to provide their own project funds to run a JDSC campaign thanks to an alternate funding structure in place.
Once a proposal has made it through the requisite approval process, the relevant tools are identified and data is collected to begin the exercise.
“Simulation is only one of the techniques that might be used in relation to decision support,” Jennie Clothier, DSTO’s chief of joint operations division, told ADM.
“Rather than people coming to JDSC and expecting a simulation we felt it was better to use a wide range of tools.
“These tools and techniques range from war gaming, Delphi techniques, strategy to task analysis, futures analysis, discrete event simulation, network dependency analysis, constructive simulations, visualisations, text analysis, just to name a few.
“There’s a whole suite of techniques that JDSC can use.”
The JDSC staff, under the guidance of the PDO, then develops an Activity Campaign plan.
This begins with a Discovery phase where capability requirements are explored.
Key issues identified and documented and analysis methods identified.
A key participant in the campaign planning is the DSTO project science and technology advisor.
The JDSC forms part of DSTO’s Next Generation Battle Labs for its Network Centric Warfare and Joint Experimentation program where clients, analysts, scientists and engineers can study future system requirements, explore new concepts and evaluate solutions.
The rationale for establishing the JDSC arises from the many growing uncertainties in today’s strategic environment.
They in turn have required increasingly complex responses on strategy and capability matters from Defence decision-makers, and such responses commonly involve the joint use of force elements, adding a further element of complexity.
As seen from the figure on the opposite page, JDSC has been involved in a wide range of project elements over the last three years.
An activity campaign runs for an average six weeks but simulation or modelling work can increase this time and collation, analysis and reporting of the information gathered can take another four to six weeks, almost the same time frame as a Rapid Prototyping Development and Evaluation (RPDE) program Quicklook.
The number of workshops and events in a campaign depends on the complexity of the issues being addressed.
Typically JDSC campaigns are conducted over a four to six month period but large projects can run for up to a year.
“Much of the work coming to JDSC are Defence Capability Plan (DCP) projects,” Clothier explains.
“However, that’s our second priority.
“Our number one priority is support to operations, followed by DCP projects and then we look more widely across Defence as a whole.
“For example, it could be an issues arising now in terms of force structure or it could even be a whole of government issue such as border protection.”
The work done by JDSC on the Offshore Combatant Vessel (OCV), Sea 1180, showcases this whole of government approach.
Apart from proposing to combine numerous Defence roles into one class of vessel, the requirements from Border Protection Command and Customs also need to be accounted for in the planning process for both the vessel itself and the eventual training for the various crew structures that will operate on and off the OCV.
“With Sea 1180, the PDO wanted to look at what the range of options out there was like in terms of hulls, sensors and systems and maybe even model some likely scenarios,” Air Vice-Marshal Jack Plenty, head of capability system in CDG, told ADM.
“We looked at how you might run something like this capability, without getting into product names or that level of information.”
JDSC also looked at some of the elements in the Air 9000 Ph 5C, the Chinook acquisition.
A key question there was to look at whether a non-military off the shelf hoist was needed to meet the requirements.
The JDSC ran through both a terrain and mission analysis program and said that the hoist was not actually needed, as the MOTS winch supplied with the helicopter would be able to cope with the tasks outlined.
Clothier points to this success as the JDSC saving both time and money for the project by providing contextual evidence of capabilities.
While JDSC is aware of costing issues associated with MOTS or developmental capabilities, it does not explicitly explore these but will make CDG aware of the cost implications of recommendations.
Apart from the in depth work that JDSC performs at the complex project level, they also provide another level of support helping PDOs develop initial requirements and set priorities within their own projects.
JP2060, the deployable joint health capability, also received JDSC support due to the complex nature of the scoping task, in terms of what needed to be done to deliver a certain level of healthcare outcome in the field.
Data was gathered from international sources and experience to develop a model that allowed the PDO to ask informed questions of industry when the time came.
AVM Plenty confirmed that a final report from this activity is almost complete.
Captain Nick Woodley, RAN, the acting director general of capability and plans at CDG, also confirmed that PDOs have a good working knowledge of the capabilities that the JDSC offers, with positive word of mouth between PDOs also helping the agencies work together more.
The points of contact between the two agencies are quite close and easy to navigate, he said.
And JDSC is proactive in approaching CDG if they see an opportunity in the DCP.
“I’d say there’s only a small number of PDOs that haven’t been involved in at least one JDSC activity this year,” CAPT Woodley reflected.
Interestingly, JDSC also engages both long and short-term industry contractors, almost as secondments.
Long-term contractors are generally engaged to provide support to the operation and technology infrastructure of the JDSC.
Short-term contractors are engaged to support specific Project Activity Campaigns and provide specialist expertise.
Companies already involved include CAE Australia, Qinetiq, Calytrix and a host of others, with partner companies providing staff to work in the centre alongside DSTO staff for set periods.
Contractors are usually engaged through the Simulation Support Services Standing Committee Offer Panel, which is administered by the Australian Defence Simulation Office (ADSO).
JDSC is also in talks with RPDE and universities both in Australia and overseas for future collaboration opportunities on an as needed basis.
“With industry at the moment we have eight full time contractors and six of them are from SMEs,” Clothier told ADM.
“We also leverage off the capabilities in industry.
“We don’t want to recreate what already exists.
“A lot of what we do is about pulling together lots of different capabilities to answer a specific question in a cost effective way.”
The JDSC used to be one large room in at Fairbairn (with some of the biggest touch screen computers in the southern hemisphere on display) which could be broken into two or three sections but it now boasts numerous sites at Fairbairn that can host campaigns at a number of security levels.
JDSC aims to double its throughput of projects in the coming 18 months from its current level of one major activity, one minor activity and three small activities a month.
Upcoming JDSC activities include looking at the joint operations planning room on the LHD, which will be a joint effort with RPDE.
This is the first time that the two organisations have worked together on a project, from concept (JDSC) through to a possible room-based prototype (RPDE) that would make use of knowledge in the shipbuilding industry.
“There is value in engaging with industry at the JDSC level for purely practical reasons,” AVM Plenty explained.
“They can provide practical advice on what is physically possible in a given space, such as the LHD joint operations room.
“They can give us an indication that what we are thinking is even viable to begin with.”
Other projects on the horizon set for JDSC attention include JP2025 Ph 6, the JORN enhancement, JP154 Ph 2, counter-IED scoping, and conceptual work on joint Electronic Warfare Centre announced in the 2009 White Paper.
JDSC is also looking at alternative funding sources apart from CDG for future projects.
While ADSO director Dr Mike Brennan sits on the JDSC steering committee, ADSO itself is looking at putting together a Force Structure Exploratory Environment, with the help of industry, as force structure review plans begin to take shape across Defence.
This will need to be a suite of tools that JDSC can help collate into a coherent whole.
“We aim to provide more rigour up front,” Clothier explains.
“We’re very proud of the number and diversity of projects that we’ve tackled over the last three years.
“JDSC attracts senior people in Defence, who see value in what we do.
“I still think we can do better but I think we’re on the right track.”