Strategy for an Army Center for Network Science, Technology, and Experimentation (2007)

This chapter reviews the different organizations across the Army that have a role in NSTE today. The committee developed and used the following definition for network science, technology, and experimentation (NSTE) to determine which organizational elements of the Army are currently engaged in NSTE efforts:

Using the above definition, the committee identified current Army organizations having significant S&T investments in NSTE efforts in the areas listed in Table 2-3. Detailed information on NSTE funding and personnel resources was requested from these organizations, but the data provided were incomplete and unusable. The committee therefore relied on briefings provided during its information-gathering sessions and on the personal knowledge of its members in preparing the analysis presented in this chapter.

Currently, NSTE efforts conducted by the Army are primarily in the area of information and communications. Much less work is ongoing in human performance in networks and other priority network areas described in Chapter 2. Figure 3-1 depicts the principal Army organizations currently engaged in NSTE, and Table 3-1 summarizes the present physical locations for ongoing work in each of the priority network areas. Specific organizations and their work are discussed below.

NSTE efforts in information and communications are performed at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), which includes the Army Research Office (ARO), and at the Communications-Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center (CERDEC). Most of this work takes place at three major sites: ARL, Adelphi, Maryland; Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Maryland; and Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. Although the committee was provided with only minimal financial data, it estimated that in Fiscal Year 2006, total NSTE investments in information and communications networks were ~$145 million, with ARL responsible for basic and applied research (~$70 million) and CERDEC responsible for applied research, advanced technology development, and experimentation (~$75 million).¹

ARL is the Army’s corporate, or central, laboratory for basic and applied research. Its mission is to provide innovative science, technology, and analysis to enable the full spectrum of operations. In general, the Army relies on ARL for scientific discoveries, technologic advances, and analyses to provide warfighters with capabilities to succeed on the battlefield.

ARL consists of ARO and seven directorates. Those directly involved in NSTE are ARO, the Computational and Information Sciences Directorate (CISD), and the Human Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED). The HRED efforts are discussed in the section below titled “Human Performance in Networks.”

The directorate primarily engaged in NSTE at ARL is CISD, which conducts a broad spectrum of research focused on high-bandwidth communication, advanced command and control (C2) techniques, battlefield visualization, weather decision aids, and defensive information operations. CISD also addresses scientific developments that would enable modeling, design, analysis, prediction, and control in the performance of a complex network of networksin particular, tactical sensor and communications networks and the overlying decision-making networks.

ARO represents the Army’s most long-range view for pursuing S&T advancements in network technology. ARO’s mission is to serve as the Army sponsor of extramural basic research in the engineering, physical, information, and life sciences. It competitively selects and funds basic research proposals from educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and private industry. The ARO research program consists principally of extramural academic research conducted through single investigator efforts, university-affiliated research centers, and specially tailored outreach programs. Each approach has its own objectives and set of advantages. The priorities set by ARO serve as a means to integrate Army-wide, long-range planning for research, development, and acquisition.

To address network science research, ARL has created five network science grand challenges. These are:

1. Develop a fundamental understanding of the performance, scalability, and behavior modeling of secure networks;

2. Enable autonomy and self-configuration;

3. Develop networks that seamlessly support coalition/joint operations;

4. Secure information sharing among different security domains; and

5. Understand underlying phenomena of decision-making networks, while jointly addressing the physical (e.g., mobile ad hoc wireless networks), the social (e.g., people, organizations, cultures), and the cognitive (e.g., perceptions, beliefs, decisions) aspects of networks.

In addition to the work of the directorates and ARO, ARL also has a strong outreach effort with other government activities involved with network science. Organizations with which ARL interacts include:

• CERDEC in the areas of mobile ad hoc wireless networks (MANET), network design tools, security, performance analysis, and experimentation;

• The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the areas of MANET networking, sensor networking, and optical and other communications;

• The Army Research Institute (ARI) in the development of collaboration mechanisms;

• The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in MANET networking and performance analysis;

• The U.S. Military Academy at West Point for research in secure networks and social networking;

• The Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in social networking; and

• The U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) in social networking.

The CERDEC mission is to develop and integrate command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) technologies that enable information dominance and decisive lethality for the networked warfighter. CERDEC’s areas of focus are (1) develop and transition C4ISR technologies in support of the global war on terrorism and the Department of Defense transformation; (2) proactively support the Army Materiel Command (AMC) Life Cycle Management Commands (LCMCs) and key customers with highly qualified and responsive C4ISR engineers; (3) expand system engineering capability (integrated modeling and simulation, architecture, and experimentation) to support current and future force requirements; and (4) leverage Army C4ISR capabilities for homeland defense.

CERDEC has about 1,600 scientists and engineers engaged in these missions. An important role of CERDEC is the engineering and management support provided to program executive officers (PEOs) and their program managers (PMs) in the development, production, and fielding of systems. The three CERDEC directorates that are the primary S&T leaders for NSTE are the Command and Control Directorate (C2D), the Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate (S&TCD) and the Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate (I2WD).

The C2D mission areas are in battle command, portable and mobile power, platform integration and prototyping, environmental control systems, and navigation. The battle command area has two components concerned with NSTE: (1) the command and control component, which develops enabling technologies to support and advance the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned and attached forces in the accomplishment of a mission; and (2) the integrated ground and air command and control platform systems component, which develops tactical command and control platform systems by designing, fabricating, and integrating the C4ISR systems into vehicular, watercraft, and dismounted soldier platforms.

The S&TCD mission is the focal point for the Army’s tactical communications systems and for integrated, secure seamless tactical communications for the digitized battlefield. S&TCD performs research, development, and engineering functions in all aspects of terrestrial, avionic, and space-dependent communications technology. This technology includes adaptive, reliable seamless battlefield communications with full electronic counter-countermeasures capability and information security (INFOSEC). S&TCD has the primary responsibility for DOD communications, networking, and network security. Key areas of investment include information assurance, antennas, mobile networking, and systems engineering.

The mission of the I2WD is to ensure information dominance by providing enemy situation awareness, targeting, and electronic combat technology to the warfighter. The I2WD provides effective intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors, ISR processing, and capabilities for electronic warfare; air/ground survivability (force protection); information operations; and

ISR modeling and simulation materiel to the U.S. Army. It does this through research, development, prototype demonstrations, and rapid transitions of state-of-the-art technologies into systems, as well as through development, production, and fielding of specified equipment in support of Army and national intelligence requirements.

NSTE development efforts at CERDEC are focused in the following areas:

• Network-aware adaptive applications,

• Mobile ad hoc networking systems,

• Affordable on-the-move satellite solutions,

• Broadband, multi-port, omni-directional antennas,

• Broadband, power-efficient amplifiers,

• Sensor management/tasking, including

  • Data compression (especially for sensor data),

  • Onboard processing at the sensor,

  • Automated sensor queuing, and

• Automated decision aids.

Importantly, CERDEC also addresses the “experimentation” element of NSTE. This is accomplished primarily through the command, control, and communications on-the-move (C3OTM) test bed located at Ft. Dix, New Jersey. This major (~$15 million per year) experimentation effort provides a relevant operational field experimentation venue to assess and quantify the effectiveness of an individual system or a system of systems. It also enables assessment and quantification of the enhanced combat effectiveness provided by technology insertions to the current force, to the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, and to other programs of record.² The C3OTM test bed assesses technical performance using objective, surrogate, and simulated systems. It uses operational mission threads in both scripted and unscripted play, and it develops its own test methodologies, assessment metrics, and automated data collection, reduction, and analysis techniques. The facilities available at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, include 42,000 contiguous land acres under a joint basing concept. The test bed features commercially restricted airspace to support unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations; nearby naval and supersonic air operations; Warren Grove Bombing Range 20 miles south; access to USAF/USN runways, hangars, test facilities and firing ranges; and access to materiel, military vehicles, personnel, and National Guard and Army Reserve units.

Although the committee did not include research on sensors in its NSTE definition, the interfaces of sensors to physical networks are fundamental to Army NSTE efforts. Sensor research is performed primarily at three sites: Ft. Belvoir,

Virginia, in the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) of CERDEC; Adelphi, Maryland, by the ARL CISD and Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate (SEDD); and, at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, by CERDEC.

The Army has two primary organizations that perform human, behavioral, and social science research and development. These are the Human Research and Engineering Directorate of the ARL, currently located at APG, and the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia.

The Human Research and Engineering Directorate (HRED) of ARL is the Army’s human engineering laboratory and is the principal Army organization involved in research on human performance in networks. It conducts broad-based programs of scientific research and technology directed toward optimizing soldier performance and soldier-machine interactions to maximize battlefield effectiveness. One of its major functions is enabling the individual soldier, crew, and battle staff to comprehend and manage the vast quantities of data expected to flow across the digitized battlefield in both automated and degraded support modes. HRED has ongoing research in network science and technology in such areas as social networks, control of robotic elements in network environments, human behavior representation in models and simulations, and technology development to improve human-computer interactions. It is establishing a capability to simulate network-centric, distributed environments that are cognitively demanding in order to assess situational awareness behaviors.³

The U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI), part of the Department of the Army Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, G-1, also conducts research to improve human performance. Its mission is to improve soldier, leader, and unit performance through advances in the behavioral and social sciences with a focus on personnel, training, and leader development. ARI was funded in Fiscal Year 2007 to perform research in social networks, and in human collaboration in networks and in social networks. ARI’s Armored Forces Field Unit, located at Fort Knox, Kentucky, is scheduled to move under the BRAC in 2011 to partner with network science organizations already

in place or moving to APG. In the past, this small unit (fewer than 8 scientists) has conducted advanced development in approaches to training units in digital and networked environments.

Both HRED and ARI conduct research in cognitive processes such as decision making and situational awareness that is applicable to the study of human performance in networks. However, the total resources that they have to conduct broad areas of research to support the soldier make up less than 2 percent of the Army’s S&T budget. The number of scientific personnel in these organizations is less than 12 percent of the number in CERDEC. Therefore, without significant additional resources, it will be extremely difficult for HRED and ARI to conduct all of the NSTE necessary to improve human performance in networks.

Additional research on human performance relevant to NTSE is ongoing at the Natick Soldier Center and the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, both located at Natick, Massachusetts. The Medical Research and Materiel Command laboratories at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research facilities in Bethesda, Maryland, also conduct neuroscience research that is applicable to human performance.

Recognition of the importance of adversary understanding to successful military operations is rapidly increasing, but there is relatively little work ongoing other than efforts associated with the immediate training and sensitization of forces deploying to the Middle East. Research in dynamic network analysis, which involves developing mathematical and behavioral technologies to better understand social networks in organizations, including terrorist networks, is funded through ARL cooperative technology agreements (CTAs) monitored by HRED, the Office of Naval Research, and ARI. Current research in adversary understanding includes improvements in tools to enable more efficient user behavior in locating, understanding, and coding data and in updating analyses as new political, economic, military, social, and infrastructure data are acquired. An example of this research can be found in “Destabilization of Covert Networks” (Carley, 2006).

There are multiple NSTE efforts in network science research ongoing through various CTAs, international technology alliances (ITAs), and university-affiliated research centers (UARCs). These include:

• ARL Communications and Networks CTA: Self-configuring wireless

network technologies that enable secure, scalable, energy-efficient, and survivable mobile and sensor networks, currently being funded at $7 million per year.

• The International Technology Alliance in Network and Information Sciences (NISITA): Established by IBM in collaboration with ARL and the UK Ministry of Defense, the NISITA furthers research in network-centric systems to advance the technological capabilities of armed forces engaged in urban warfare and to enhance distributed, secure, and flexible decision making to improve coalition operations. It is currently being funded at $7 million to $8 million per year in both the United States and the United Kingdom.⁴

• Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies UARC: Biologically derived sensors, electronics, and information processing, currently being funded at $6 million per year.

• Institute for Creative Technologies UARC: Immersive environments through full sensory immersion having three-dimensional mobility with compelling interactive stories, currently being funded at $10 million per year.

Modeling and simulation capabilities, which are relevant to NSTE, are located at APG through the U.S. Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity (AMSAA), the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), and also the TRADOC Analysis Center (TRAC) in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. NSTE is also being conducted through existing acquisition programs, the most comprehensive being the FCS.

Network-enabled operations have proven critical for today’s military and are a central premise for the development of future warfighting capabilities. The developmental basis for these operations is ongoing work in network science, technology, and experimentation at ARL, CERDEC, ARI, and multiple other Army organizations.

Conclusion 2: Current responsibility for NSTE is fragmented across several organizations. As the BRAC relocations to APG occur with concomitant losses in personnel and facilities, the existing NSTE capabilities will be further divided and eroded, hindering essential progress toward improvements in the Army’s ability to conduct network-centric operations and warfare.

Recommendation 2: The Army should change its organization and coordination of NSTE efforts to ensure essential support for future warfighting operations.