ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (OCT 15, 2014) -- With lives at stake, Soldiers must exhibit a level of coordinated teamwork far beyond their civilian counterparts.
With these Soldiers' needs in mind, the Army has established its own form of teamwork by joining forces with industry, science and technology and academic experts to deliver more agile, adaptive and powerful mission command systems to the Soldier.
"We believe industry and our science and technology partners can bring in great new technologies and capabilities that will be easier and more cost effective to integrate and operate," said Col. Michael Thurston, project manager for Mission Command (PM MC), part of the Program Executive Office Command, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T).
Thurston was the keynote speaker at a Sept. 23 event hosted by the Aberdeen Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), held at the Water's Edge Executive Center in Belcamp, Md. More than 275 industry representatives learned about PEO C3T's five-year technology roadmap, and how they may integrate their capabilities into the Army's network to support Force 2025 efforts.
Thurston presented both existing and emerging technologies within his mission command portfolio, which, following the merger of PM MC and Project Manager Joint Battle Command-Platform (JBC-P) in May 2014, provides interoperable command post and mounted capabilities to the Soldier.
One of the most significant advancements is the Army's shift from stand-alone, computer-based systems to web-based systems to execute mission command. The Army is seeking industry's expertise in building these web apps, which simplify systems and cater to the young Soldiers who are naturally drawn to web technology in their everyday lives.
The foundation for these apps is the Common Operating Environment (COE), which is an approved set of computing technologies and standards that enable secure, interoperable and rapid application development across six computing environments (CEs). The COE will provide all Soldiers with a common user experience, including common maps, graphics, and icons -- from garrison and the command post down to vehicles and dismounted troops.
The common COE software baseline will allow Soldiers to build a flexible "toolkit" of apps that they can use across different devices and environments, pulling apps off the network to meet emerging mission needs.
"With web apps, we can consolidate separate capabilities and display them on one, common, geospatial digital map, anytime, anywhere, and on any device," Thurston said.
To assist in this effort, the government is making software development kits (SDKs) available to third party developers. The Command Post Computing Environment SDKs leverage the Ozone widget framework for apps inside the command post and the Mounted Computing Environment SDK leverages the Android framework for apps inside tactical vehicles.
"If they use our development environment kits, we believe industry can bring us new technologies that will be easier and certainly more cost effective to integrate and field, because they will not have to recreate an entire infrastructure," Thurston said.
"Also, by considering compatibility up front, the Army and industry will be able to develop, test, certify and deliver these capabilities more quickly."
PM MC will also be developing capabilities in the areas of disconnected intermittent latent (DIL) solutions for uninterrupted operations in the event of a network outage, as well as unified data, a powerful technology that creates common data standards that companies such as Amazon use to identify consumer's past purchases and predict future purchases.
"In an Army environment, this technology could assist in streamlining data for analysts as well as get more up to date information to share around the battlefield," said Portia Crowe, chief, COE and software applications branch, PEO C3T. " It will also ensure a level of data security that we did not have before."
Following Thurston's briefing, Jennifer Zbozny, PEO C3T chief engineer, presented the PEO C3T technical roadmap and highlighted how industry can deliver next generation technical solutions for mission command and other focus areas including network transport, which delivers the flexibility to attach or detach to whatever network is available, network operations (NetOps), for transparent network management and cyber security, or how to protect and defend the tactical network.
Within this roadmap is the Simplified Tactical Army Reliable Network (STARNet) strategy, which lays out improvements to the PEO C3T system of systems portfolio from today through 2020, and establishes a baseline for the Army's Force 2025 tactical network.
"Our kids will be the Soldiers of Force 2025," Zbonzy said. "They know from a young age how to push buttons and navigate apps, so we must consider their proficiencies as a guiding factor when planning future capabilities."
The event also included technical exchanges led by subject matter experts, providing an overview of each focus area and the technical challenges currently facing the Army, followed by an open forum designed to foster conversation and ideas between the government and industry.
"The constructive dialogue throughout this workshop certainly will enable more collaborative solutions to support the PEO's mission and vision," said Michael Bowen, AFCEA board member.
By breaking down both technological and organizational barriers within its portfolio, PEO C3T is both simplifying and enhancing the capabilities it delivers to Soldiers. It is this same type of collaboration between government and non-government partners that will ensure Soldiers are continually equipped with the latest technologies.
"We must continue to challenge our own workforce, industry, and the requirements, test, and resourcing communities to be more agile and adaptive to achieve the Army's 2025 initiatives," Thurston said. "The stronger we make this collective team, the more prepared we will be for future conflicts."
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