Army Science and Technology for Homeland Security: Report 2: C4ISR (2004)

Some of the anticipated operational capabilities to be afforded to the Future Force by C4ISR are listed below. Consistent with the rest of the report, this appendix is organized in the following groupings: command, control, and computers (C3); communications (C); and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR). The sections for C3 and communications are further divided under the subheadings “See First,” “Understand First,” and “Act First” and augmented by another important parameter, “Ensure Reliability.” Each capability is listed under the parameter that fits it best; however, it is noted that these capabilities usually support other parameters and components to some extent as well.

• Commanders will have access to a common operational picture (COP) with timely updates to ensure near-perfect situational awareness and to overcome the fog of war.

• Information will be automatically “pushed” to the commander as well as being “pulled” from the network in accord with immediate needs.

• The Future Force Warrior (FFW) will use forward sensor fusion and ubiquitous, assured network communications to enable improved battle management, command and control, and situational awareness.

• Information will be fused at the commander’s level to avoid information overload and enable complete situational understanding.

• Automated event-tracking capability will alert commanders to deviations from the operations plan or to unanticipated exigencies.

• Commanders will be provided state-of-the-art collaborative, distributed, real-time decision aids to facilitate informed decisions.

• Computer systems will be designed to enable individual soldiers to be recognized by any system and to be uniquely identified with appropriate rank, priority, and information needs.

• The FFW will be integrated, interoperable, and interfaced with the unit of action systems and is capable of independent operations with joint assets and firepower.

• The FFW will have command and control of organic tactical mobile robots and can interface with Future Combat Systems (FCS) robotic platforms.

• The operations plan will be continuously updated with inputs from higher and lower echelons as events unfold.

• The command post will be wherever the commander is located, be that location mounted, dismounted, or airborne.

• Changes in leadership on the battlefield will be automatically accommodated on the fly to ensure continuity of command.

• Automated synchronization of maneuver, firepower, and reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) will be provided.

• Ad hoc sensor-command-shooter links will be automatically or semi-automatically established to maximize effective firepower.

• Computer hardware will be robust and rugged for operations in the field.

• Computer system components will be modular for easy and rapid repairs in the field or for upgrades.

• Computers will be protected against hostile penetration with advanced firewalls and other security systems.

• Software applications will be robust and flexible to accommodate interruptions in network services and changes in data rates without crashing.

• Software will be readily serviced or upgraded in the field via the information network, without on-site technicians.

• The network will utilize ground, airborne, and space communication line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight links to achieve continuous, uninterrupted connectivity on the move.

• Networks will provide continuous position and navigation functions of all blue (friendly) entities with minimum self-disclosure to enemy.

• Entities (including individual soldiers) will be connected to the network to enable each warfighter to have access to needed information and to enable each system/sensor to contribute relevant data that it may collect to the knowledge pool.

• The network will facilitate battlefield Identification: Friend or Foe by providing local situational awareness to engaged tactical units.

• The network will provide reach-back through the global information grid (GIG) for national source information, as well as providing administrative and logistic support for all combat support and combat service functions.

• Connectivity will be provided to local military or civilian networks as required.

• The network will be backward-compatible to extend to legacy systems.

• Above all, the communications system must be robust to ensure that critical information is provided to the warfighters when needed.

• Network management will be essentially built in, requiring little to no on-site support. Upgrades or servicing can be done remotely via the network itself.

• The network will be ad hoc, that is, self-configuring, allowing entities and nodes to enter and leave automatically without operator involvement.

• The network will make maximum use of all available spectral bandwidth by dynamically adapting to battlefield exigencies and the commander’s priorities.

• Network capabilities will allow voice, data, and video in accord with the commander’s intent and priorities and the battlefield situation.

• The network is tied into the GIG to enable variable joint and coalition connectivity and operations.

• Network protocols will facilitate multiple levels of security.

• Network protocols will accommodate temporary interruptions in connectivity (for example, if a vehicle passes under a bridge) without requiring resetting.

• The network will be robust against environmental effects such as rain, fog, foliage, buildings, and structures.

• The network will be robust against jamming countermeasures, taking automatic counter-countermeasures to minimize adverse effects.

• Networks will be assured as well as secure, providing protection against insertion of specious data and denying access to hostile or unauthorized personnel or forces.

• To the extent possible, the network will preclude interception and network analysis by hostile forces.

• The network hardware and protocols will be commercially based to the maximum extent possible in order to facilitate technology insertions as they evolve.

• Manned and unmanned ground, air, and space systems will extend vision beyond the line of sight to provide continuous, ubiquitous battlefield monitoring through both passive and aggressive RSTA.

• Sensors will be available to see through walls in urban operations.

• The ISR system will employ the full range of operational variables—terrain; weather; friendly and enemy forces; and noncombatants—and detect threat actions in all environments.

• The ISR system will manage the overall application of organic sensor assets in accord with the commander’s intent and needs.

• The ISR system will provide standoff means to detect mines, booby traps, and command-detonated munitions “in stride” so as to maintain operational tempo.

• Semiautomated pattern analysis will be performed to detect, locate, and identify enemy combatants and systems.

• Control of sensors and information collection, as well as analysis, will be distributed via the network to eliminate single-point vulnerability.

• The sensor system will be designed to operate in all weather and all terrain, against enemy entities that are dispersed, covered and concealed, masked, and fleeting.

• Joint combat identification measures will be integrated.

• Sensor data collected from both manned and unattended sensor networks will be processed, networked, and fused into an integrated COP for unprecedented situational awareness and understanding.

• Commanders will be able automatically or with software decision aids to sort out from a variety of enemy data entries which are most dangerous and which have higher payoffs for engagement at tactical standoff.

• Highly precise data on targets will flow from sensor to shooter and enable reliable and timely battlefield damage assessment.

• Joint, Army, and coalition manned and unmanned air, ground, and space RSTA assets will be used synergistically to gain and maintain contact with enemy elements and to provide high-resolution combat information on terrain and weather.

• Near-real-time friend, foe, or noncombatant identification across the spectrum of operations will be achieved through platform-to-platform, platform-to-soldier, soldier-to-platform, and soldier-to-soldier interrogation.

• Means will be provided to sort through decoys, deception, and disinformation.

• Robotic systems will be employed for certain high-risk situations.

• Means will be provided to defeat the enemy’s ISR systems through the use of obscurants, jamming, signature reduction, deception, and pattern avoidance techniques in order to see, understand, and act first.