FROM SENSOR TO SHOOTER FASTER
A
ll parties were on standby, eager to take the next step toward operationalizing a prototype capability in soft- ware translation and demonstrating its utility over active military networks.
As part of a two-week plan, the team conducted initial connectiv- ity and quickly identified network and configuration issues. Tey immediately began to work through the hurdles, and after a few days of additional testing and development, addressed the tech- nical issues. Te team was ready to launch the exercise.
Tis time they were on familiar ground, initiating communica- tions from the Air Force’s Common Mission Control Center at Beale Air Force Base, California, to the 101st Airborne Division Artillery at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Te goal was to provide insights and help prove a critical new capability in software translation: converting, in real time and strictly from machine to machine, an Air Force Universal Command and Control Initiative message to the Army’s Variable Message Format. A message from one service’s message system had been converted to another service’s messaging format in a lab many times; this would be the first such conversion in an operational setting. It would show an initial sensor-to-shooter capability that could pass target- ing data between services to the Army’s fire control system.
Air Force access to Army fires units without having to go through layers of organizations, thereby speeding up the kill chain process and reducing the chance of targeting errors.
Back to the test meant to solve this problem: At the helm were the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office (RCCTO), the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) and the 101st Airborne Division Artillery. To launch the demonstra- tion, the Air Force RCO selected a critical target within an area of responsibility outside the range of Army sensors and initiated a call for fires from the Common Missile Control Center. Tis initial sensor message was downlinked to the control center and initiated the call for fires, which was seamlessly translated from the Air Force Command and Control Initiative standard to the Army Variable Message Format standard and delivered to the 101st at Fort Campbell.
Here’s why this message conversion is necessary. Today, communicating between these Army and Air Force systems requires Soldiers and Airmen to monitor or scan a multitude of internet relay chat windows or other communications, and then manually transfer and input data into their respective systems. Tis can lead to time delays and possible human errors. A conversion is required in order to allow these two systems to communicate machine-to-machine.
Next, the RCCTO team is planning to conduct a possible end-to-end test of the entire sensor-to- shooter kill chain.
Despite the different systems, it only took minutes to complete the machine-to-machine transfer. As a result, the services can begin to move from a linear, static and stovepiped kill chain to a situation in which the kill chains overlap and all the domains of war are interconnected into one network to create a “kill web” with multiple paths. Using the machine-to-machine translation reduced the chance for human error, while significantly decreas- ing the time traditional dynamic targeting takes to execute. Te process demonstrated the value of leveraging sensors that are not organic to the Army—such as Air Force sensors—while open- ing up the strike options for the Air Force. Te adapter enabled more timely prosecution of crit- ical targets in the conduct of multidomain operations.
Unfortunately, this is not as simple as just converting messages on a one-for-one basis. In some cases, it takes multiple messages from one format to create a single message in the converted format. When conversion is successful, it allows the Army access to Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, and the
108 Army AL&T Magazine Summer 2019
INFORMATION AT THE NEEDED SPEED In a complex fight in an anti-access and area denial environment, the time it takes to deliver information from sensor to shooter is critical. Recognizing the need to speed up long-range fires communication and execution among the services, the chiefs of staff of the Army and Air Force directed that an Army-Air Force summit be held. At the summit, in August 2018, the two services focused on applying and integrating their open-architecture tech- nologies and approaches to boost speed, precision and agility on
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