Think of the Internet, and
how you’re able to use it. You may have a Macintosh, Dell
or IBM computer, a cell phone or a hand-held personal data assistant.
As long as your device complies with the protocols, standards
and specifications of the World Wide Web, you can log on, surf
Web sites, and send and receive data.
In the emerging network of the integrated battlespace, one of
the seven market areas for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS),
it’s not that easy. Why? Because even though the U.S. military
communicates better than any other military in the world, there
doesn’t yet exist a common software architecture that enables
different systems to share information according to the same interfaces,
standards or protocols.
Boeing IDS, through such U.S. Army programs as Future
Combat Systems (FCS) and the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS),
and the U.S. Air Force program called Family of Beyond-Line-of-Sight-Terminals
(FAB-T), is putting together a very strong foundation for developing
just that type of architecture.
“Taken as a whole, these programs are establishing a new
concept of operating in the tactical battlefield for the next
20 years – one that relies on the network,” said Dr.
Roger Roberts, Boeing senior vice president for Space and Intelligence
Systems.
Roberts, who heads the integrated battlespace strategic sub-council,
leads the Boeing team that is creating critical elements of the
intelligence network and battlefield information system of the
future.
Carl O’Berry, vice president of Boeing Strategic Architecture,
leads the team that’s developing the open architecture standards
that Boeing expects will work not only in FCS, JTRS and FAB-T,
but eventually throughout the Department of Defense information
infrastructure.
 And
Boeing engineers are verifying the ideas and concepts these teams
are developing in the Boeing Integration Center (BIC). Located
in Anaheim, Calif., the BIC is an advanced and interactive modeling
and simulation tool that demonstrates the possibilities and effectiveness
of network-centric operations.
The BIC is where customers’ officials from government
and industry can see firsthand how far along Boeing is in development
of its solutions – and whether those solutions work as advertised.
In fact, more than 12,000 visitors, from all branches of the U.S.
Armed Forces, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, international customers,
interested U.S. and international government agencies, and from
industry, have been to the BIC since it opened in late 2000.
“We’re running 450 to 600 people through that facility
every month, and the level of people coming in is going up, and
up, and up,” O’Berry said. “What we have done
(through the BIC) is serve as an educational element on network-centric
operations for our customers. We’ve worked this all across
the services, and what’s beginning to develop now is that
we’ve got the customer coming to us and bringing whole staffs
to sit down and write the plan for getting this architecture into
their systems.”
The 13,000-square-foot BIC has four labs, one dedicated to FCS
and another to the FAB-T program. Visitors sit in an amphitheater-like
room and view demonstrations on large projection screens. The
demonstrations are often tailored to the background and interest
of each audience.
John Harms, director of business development for the Strategic
Architecture organization, often leads the BIC demonstrations
that culminate in simulated future battlefield scenarios.
The leverage that Boeing has to create a truly interoperable
information network is our company’s history of building
military aircraft and communications satellites, he said.
"That's the starting point for the information network.
And what we want to create is a common communications and information
architecture framework based on commercial and government interface
standards that is Internet-based and allows these systems to talk
to each other and share information," Harms said.
This architecture would help meet the needs of the integrated
battlespace, which are communications (assured connectivity),
information (information certainty), knowledge (timely decisions)
and actions (velocity of actions).
“Connectivity is very important,” Harms emphasized.
“Our military customer wants to be connected anytime, anywhere.”
In the BIC, visitors can see what that connectivity could be
like. As scenarios unfold, icons that represent individual soldiers,
units, aircraft, weapons, tanks, ships, trucks, etc., are arrayed
on maps on the projection screens. Each icon has an IP address
that can readily be called up through hand-held and desktop computers.
Accessing an icon’s IP address provides information on what
it is, where it is, what it’s doing, where it’s going,
what it’s armed with, and whether or not it’s friendly.
This is the type of information that battlefield commanders
need, Harms said. He recalled a three-star general once told him,
during a BIC demonstration, that the one question he’d most
like to have answered during an engagement was, “Where are
you?”
“That’s a fundamental question, not only of soldiers,
but of policemen and firemen,” Harms said.
The answers to such fundamental questions are what Boeing plans
to provide through the network solutions it's developing in pursuit
of the Integrated Battlespace market. Battlefield decisions will
still be difficult, but the ability of all systems to share information
and collaborate will save time and lives, and ensure mission success.
“We don’t tell (our customers) how to operate, we
tell them what the art of the possible is, as it applies to their
particular domain,” O’Berry said of the BIC demonstrations.
“They walk away from the BIC sessions with knowledge they
didn’t have when they came in. They walk away excited, and
understanding what the principles of this are all about.”
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