ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (December 23, 2014) - The loud hum of multiple servers in the command post may start to diminish as the Army consolidates warfighting data into a tactical cloud.
This cloud will house large collections of information under a suite of technologies called "Unified Data." With the potential to eliminate several server stacks per command post, unified data will not only contribute to the Army's goal to make command posts more agile, but it will also simplify the way Soldiers share information and provide increased cyber security.
"We are combining data from across echelons into one, authoritative server at brigade and above for all of the warfighting function capabilities," said Col. Michael Thurston, project manager for Mission Command (PM MC), part of the Program Executive Office Command, Communications-Tactical (PEO C3T). "This is just one aspect of our overarching plan to simplify the Soldiers' experiences while operating our systems."
Unified Data also contributes to the Army's Mission Command Network vision, which allows commanders to maintain situational awareness across domains and locations.
Synchronizing Across Systems
Today, each warfighting function capability, such as fires, maneuver or intelligence, feeds information into its own server at the brigade command post. By implementing the Unified Data approach, the information will go directly to one, unified data server.
"The data can be anything that's generated up from the Soldier such as spot reports, logistics data and intel information," Thurston said. "It can also be data that has been analyzed and fused from higher headquarters and distributed back down."
The Unified Data function is one of the key capabilities within the Command Post Computing Environment version 3 (CP CE v3) initiative, and is expected to field in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. The current version, CP CE v2, is unifying the command post with common views, shared data, shared maps and common services across mission command and intel systems. CP C3 v3 will take the next step by merging information across the entire tactical space -- the command post, mounted, and dismounted data -- to produce Unified Data.
Simplicity for Soldiers
A Unified Data approach will also simplify the steps required to share information between warfighting systems, such as sharing fires data from the Advanced Field Artillery Data System (AFATDS) with Command Post of the Future (CPOF), the Army's primary common operating picture system used in command posts. A user will only have to code once, and will have one common communications connection as opposed to configuring many separate warfighting function servers.
This simpler approach to managing data may be new to the Army, but Soldiers have already been using a similar function each time they organize their personal music, pictures and video files.
"Imagine having to download a song onto your iPhone, then onto your iPad, and then onto your Mac, or worse, having to recreate your playlist three times to load onto each device," said Joel Heidelberg, CP CE Unified Data engineer for PM MC. "Of course, you would not go through all of these steps -- you would just synch your library to the Apple database, which is exactly what Unified Data is doing for the warfighting capabilities."
Integrated Cyber Security
Unified Data also provides the critical capability of enhanced cyber security. Today, when a mission command network system receives and processes data it applies its own validation rules, meaning it determines how information should be classified. Most information is initially given the highest possible classification, called "system high," which then requires the operator to go through the time-consuming process of manually transmitting the appropriate data on the Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPR), Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPR) and/or multi-national networks.
Unified Data uses cell level classification, which automatically redacts the applicable information displayed on every system so that the user can only see the fields he or she is authorized to see.
"Now the received data is processed once and stored once, with one set of validation rules applied to it," Heidelberg said.
For example, a company commander may send a spot report to the battalion command post indicating the company engaged and destroyed three opposing force tanks. Should the commander have a suspicion these tanks were stolen from the host nation's army, he would make a note of this in the report comment section. Depending on the exact situation, this information may be appropriate for U.S. or NATO nations only. With Unified Data's cell level classification and release controls, the software automatically redacts the company commander's comment field so only appropriate credentialed staff could see his comments. This allows both rapid report generation, and with the release controls applied, the report can be disseminated quickly to those who have a need for the information.
"With multi-level security, everyone can have their commodity laptop connected to the same system, but only the right information is immediately available to the right people," Heidelberg said.
In addition, by having data elements coded with their security classification and associated metadata, the information will be automatically searchable instead of relying on human intervention to conduct searches on stovepiped systems.
Soldiers Evaluate Improvements
The program office recently provided a demo of Unified Data at the Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) 15.1 at Ft. Bliss, Texas. The NIEs provide a realistic operational environment for Soldiers to assess systems.
During the demo, the brigade main server successfully received four information feeds: Data Distribution Service (DDS) data from the Network Operations Center (NOC), real-time Blue Force Tracking (BFT) and other situational awareness feeds from Joint Battle Command-Platform (JBC-P), Raven Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) data through JBC-P and dismounted input via Mobile Handheld at brigade.
Soldiers also evaluated one additional, critical benefit to using Unified Data, which is the ability to continue to operate in a disconnected, intermittent and limited (DIL) communications environment. DIL occurs should a unit experience an unexpected network outage or have to quickly move the command post from one location to another. Unified Data allows storing key data from when the connectivity was lost so Soldiers can seamlessly continue operations until connectivity is restored.
Next Steps
Soldiers will continue to evaluate Unified Data's capabilities as it matures towards simplifying and unifying command post, mounted and dismounted "big data."
"The improved capability brought by Unified Data and associated technologies represents game-changing abilities in automated command and control at strategic through tactical levels," said Lt. Col. Timothy Gearhart, Product Manager for Strategic Mission Command, part of PM MC. "This single-storage solution for the tactical environment will boost our ability to bring the correct, timely and relevant information to the Soldier."
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