A group of more than 6,000 communications, information technology, intelligence and global security experts descended on Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; for LandWarNet 2009, which was held Aug. 17-20.
The Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) event served as an opportunity for the Program Executive Office Intelligence Electronic Warfare & Sensors (PEO IEW&S) to interact with military and industry members via presentations delivered by Brig. Gen. Thomas Cole, PEO IEW&S and Lt. Col. Jonas Vogelhut, PEO IEW&S Operations Officer.
The purpose of the presentations coincided with the message delivered during the conferences opening speech by Gen. Carter Ham, Commanding General U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army, who discussed the need to provide those in the field with the ability to communicate and visualize pertinent information in near real time in order to be successful in combat operations.
Ham highlighted the necessity of breaking down the firewalls, which exists between the services and coalition forces in terms of their ability to share vital information.
While many of the participants who attended the conference focus primarily on operating and protecting the global network, Cole offered attendees a prospective from a network customer point of view.
During his briefing, which was delivered within a track dedicated to integrating future network systems and emerging requirements, Cole pointed out that his presence comes as a bit of an anomaly at LandWarNet because the forum has typically been reserved for communications, and he instead represents a user of LandWarNet in terms of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR).
The focus of his presentation centered on defining a path forward architecturally with respect to sensor information and determining how it fits into LandWarNet.
Cole emphasized a concern of being able to deliver information captured by a multitude of sensors to the coalition Warfighters. With PEO IEW&S’ focus of, ensuring soldiers have an understanding of the environment, the LandWarNet conference served as an opportunity to engage with military and industry experts on how to best utilize the Global Network Enterprise Construct (GNET) to deliver those capabilities.
Paraphrasing Sun Tzu’s Cole stated, “knowing yourself will allow you to do well in battle, but if you know the enemy, you should never have a concern.” He went on to explain that, the sensor capability we bring to the battlefield allows coalition forces to completely and immediately understand, the enemy and environment, which greatly increases their success.
In order to meet the situational awareness, targeting, force protection and intelligence needs the bevy of IEW&S systems collect and disseminate, the GNET will be the conduit for moving that data around the battlefield. “We need to ensure all those who need to access the video, HUMINT (human intelligence), SIGINT (signals intelligence) and various other data feeds, that’s collected, can be reached at the lowest levels,” added Cole.
“I want LandWarNet to be more than transport and architecture and command and control, it also needs to be about the data that we are moving around LandWarnet,” said Cole as he urged the audience to expand their thoughts on LandWarNet beyond traditional lines.
During his closing remarks, Cole expressed his belief that solutions for LandWarNet were attainable within the near future. “I think we will be implementing solutions within the next year that are relevant to coalition forces and allows us to share information.”
Within a track titled “Army Team C4ISR- from Concept to Combat, Supporting AFORGEN” Vogelhut shared with the audience insight into the unique sustainment challenges PEO IEW&S faces due to the large quantity of Quick Reaction Capabilities (QRC) in its inventory. The organization currently dedicates 50 percent of its budget toward these systems, many of which were not in the Army plans only a few years ago.
He pointed out some the differences between the traditionally planned Programs of Record (POR) and the reactionary QRCs, which are developed and fielded to meet urgent need statements (UNS) from the field. PORs are fielded in accordance with a complete sustainment plan and funding is put into place to ensure for the long-term maintenance and training of the systems. In contrast, QRCs are funded through Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds, which can change from year to year and greatly limit the ability to plan for sustainment.
A major challenge QRCs present comes in the way of training which is generally delivered in theater, initially via contractor. As new units rotate-in, training is accomplished through a train the trainer basis. Ultimately, Soldiers are left with the task of learning a system very rapidly as opposed to the formal training they receive on PORs.
Additionally, with the drawdown of equipment in Iraq coinciding with a surge in Afghanistan, many of the QRC systems within PEO IEW&S’ inventory will shift from one theater to the other necessitating some new questions dealing with deciding how to transition and setup equipment in the most efficient manner. “Soldiers are the ones who will be moving and reinstalling equipment not the technicians who originally set them up so this is another area they will need to learn how to accomplish,” said Vogelhut.
In an effort to stimulate future solutions to the QRC sustainment challenge, Vogelhut left the audience with some of the lessons the PEO has learned including a call for all the entities involved in providing, training and sustaining QRC’s to begin to transform the community. “The organization needs to evolve from being production-based, commodity-focused and platform-centric to one that is service-based, capabilities-focused and unit-centric,” said Vogelhut.